Beware The Beast Of ....

On The Workbench - 11 Mar 2009

2009-03-10T15:23:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a break from my Full Thrust miniatures and coming down to earth and working on my 15mm WW2 British. Finishing this block of miniatures will provide me with either the core to a Flames Of War late war British rifle company, or all the infantry I need to field an British armoured division in the Piquet POA2:Blitzkrieg game (at the 'battalion' scale).

As well as the British I'm also painting some GZG 15mm Stargunt miniatures. I already have a collection of Ground Zero Games' excellent miniatures in both 25mm and 6mm scales and that's always deterred me from investing in yet another scale, when GZG first started their 15mm range. But after seeing the newer range of 15mm vehicles up on the GZG site Beth and I are finally weakening in our resolve. I've started small by purchasing NSL Panzer Grenadiers via Eureka Miniatures to see how they compare to the existing 6mm and 25mm ranges.

On The Workbench - 03 August 2009

2009-08-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

The Mortar Platoon is finished and their bases are ready to be flocked and staying with the World War 2 theme I've moved on to some British 25 pounder artillery. Once again these are 15mm Flames Of War miniatures and these four 25 pounders will provide me with the towed artillery for my armoured division under Piquet's Point Of Attack 2: Blitzkrieg rules.

And finally a side project that has been sitting in a box for the last couple of years is complete. I purchased some large trees and based them on circular cardboard bases for stability, I fully intended to flock these bases but inevitably my attention was distracted elsewhere. But now finally I managed to sit down and apply paint, glue and flock to the bases, hardly a earth shattering achievement but satisfying none the less.

Better service means paying for something you already get for nothing.

2009-07-27T15:32:00.001-07:00

Since August 2000, Beth and I have maintained a small website dedicated to our wargaming hobby but recently my ISP decided that it will no longer provide the free websites it had been providing for it's customers. Apparently the need to upgrade infrastructure and provide a better service means that the customer should pay for something the customer already gets for nothing or at least that's the impression I'm left with.

So Now Beth and I are in the process of migrating our website to 'Google Sites'. The site can be found here and as with all such moves it is inevitable that there will be some renovation involved but hopefully that won't take too long.

On The Workbench - 05 July 2009

2009-07-04T21:22:00.000-07:00

Finally I managed to break through the choke point that a 15mm 'Flames Of War' late war British infantry platoon had become and completed them. In truth these shouldn't have been difficult miniatures to complete and I certainly didn't attempt to wash or high them, this was a basic get the colours in the right place, over a black undercoat and varnish to finish. They sat on my bench for some months now defying all attempts at completion and no matter how I attempted to motivate myself I found my attention wandering to other distractions.

But now they are finished and I've already almost completed the next project, a mortar platoon to accompany the recalcitrant infantry.

1970s Vintage Napoleonic Images

2009-06-26T06:49:00.000-07:00

Something else from my recent trip to Townsville, these images are a collection of slides I discovered amongst my Dad's wargaming collection. I borrowed them and had them scanned and copied to a CD. I believe that the original photographs were taken about June 1974 and shows French and British armies facing each other across the tabletop during a display at a school fete. The display was made up from the collections of my Dad and the wargaming group he was part of at the time. The miniatures are 25mm Miniature Figurines (minifigs) and some Hinchliffe brand miniatures as well.

On The Workbench - 26 Oct 2008

2008-10-25T21:18:00.000-07:00

The current block of 15mm WW2 British are done and now the Klingon starships have made it to the front of the painting queue. I had hoped to have them finished by the end of the weekend but alas the need to tear down the old fences around the house yard and dig up an offending water pipe from the dam of course took longer than I would have hoped.

Once these are finished it's back to more WW2 British, this time half tracks for the motor rifle battalion.

On The Workbench - 17 Oct 2008

2008-10-19T00:30:00.000-07:00

What's on my workbench? Some 15mm Battlefront late war British. Almost done, all I have left to do is finish the bases.

The black masses in the background are the next project, Klingon starships to use with ADB's Federation Commander game undercoated and ready to be painted.

'Stand To' - The joys of trying to base your miniatures for multiple rulesets.

2009-06-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

I've been busy trying to work out how to base and re base our 'new' and existing 15mm scale Napoleonic miniatures. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending your point of view we have a number of rule sets we are interested in playing. All are, not surprisingly Piquet supplements. The first two 'Les Grognards' and 'Grand Piquet, 2nd Edition' use the same basing system but the third, CdePk (Chef de Piquet) a tactical level game requires a different basing scheme.

So for the infantry I have decided to put two miniatures on a 0.75" x 0.5" base, you can put two bases side by side and you have to right frontage (1.5") for a single base in Les Grognards and Grand Piquet. Put three bases directly behind each other and that's a 3 rank element in CdePK, of course you can do the same with only two bases and have a 2 rank element as well. Which also happens to match the basing for infantry in Napoleon's Battles (1st Edition).

To reduce the hassle of moving around a large number of small 0.75" x 0.5" bases I plan on basing all the miniatures on magnetic strip (the 15mm British are already based in this manner) and then place those bases on metal bases cut to size. For example a 3 rank element for CdePk would be 0.75" x 1.5" and would have 3 of the smaller magnetic bases on it.

Another 'new' project?!

2009-06-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

Recently during my trip to Townsville I finally managed to convince Dad to sell me his 15mm Napoleonic British. Needless to say this has certainly renewed my interest in the Napoleonic era so now I have dug out Beth's Saxon Troops and my megre collection of Spanish and French and a copy of 'Scenarios For Wargamers' by Charles Grant

Hopefully I should get one game with Beth before my jetset wife once more sallies forth on a work trip (this time she heads to Canada). We'll use the Piquet 'Les Grognards' rules and stoke the fire up because it's going to be cold in the wargaming annex of the shed.

Dad's 2mm Napoleonic Miniatures and Terrain

2009-05-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

I'm currently back in Townsville for my Dad's 70th birthday and I thought I might share this photo of his 2mm Napoleonic miniatures and terrain. The troops at the bottom of the photo are Austrians and those at the top are Prussians. Dad likes to use CdePK, a piquet derivative of Chef de Battalion, each base of 2mm miniatures represents a single company. The photo shows approximately a brigade of infantry on each side supported by cavalry and cannon.

The terrain is made up of boards 45cm square boards with hills carved and shaped from polystyrene foam. The farms are irregular miniatures 2mm terrain and the hedges are bits of pipe cleaner and foam (and anything else he could lay his hands on) and roads are painted on.

The Things You Find Cleaning Up

2009-01-28T02:41:00.000-08:00

Recently I began poking through the hard drive on our computer, cleaning out old files, etc and I happened to come upon these images from a few years ago. They are from a meeting of the now defunct 'Van Dieman's Wargaming Club' back in 2002 when I ran a Full Thrust tournament.

The Tournament under way, seen in the foreground is Nik and Matt. Matthew is getting ready to do something decisive with his dice.

The final game. Nathan grooms his beard while John preforms surgery on his hand with a pencil.Alister Crowe's NSL fleet. I wonder if he still has it?John's winning ESU fleet. This collection of standard fleet book ships won the tournament.

The obligatory group photo from the day. From the left, myself, Alister Crowe, who ran away to Western Australia. Matt Cleaver, doomed to a future in the Tasmanian education system as a teacher (he tried to run but was stopped by the Bass Strait). Nik Linnell, who just made it to Queensland. I wonder if one day he'll realise that there's more to Queensland than just the bit around Brisbane. Next there's John Langiu, able to roll the right dice as required, he was always a pain .... er .... pleasure to play against. He also ran way to Western Australia. Then there's Zac Mashman, I believe these days he's an arts student. Obviously as an arts student he hasn't yet realised he too needs to run. Next in this rouge's gallery is Nathan Rolfe who also ran, hit South Australia and bounced back. Lastly there is Micheal O'Shea who ran away to sea. In case anyone is wondering I'm reliably in formed by my children that apparently I don't run any where, at all. Ever.

Finally down the front is our son Lachlan, who these days is taller than everyone in that photo bar Micheal and myself and is currently spending his Christmas holidays seeing just how well he can grow a goatee on the end of his chin. Much to the horror of both his Grandmothers.

On The Workbench - 10 Jan 2009

2009-01-09T22:32:00.001-08:00

The Phalon cruisers and second battleship are now complete. All I have left to do are the scouts and two dreadnoughts.

On The Workbench - 31 Dec 2008

2008-12-31T03:24:00.000-08:00

Well those Klingon starships are still pushed aside to make way for the rest of my GZG Full Thrust Phalon Fleet and some BFG Elder escorts.

Set The Mainsail And Damn The Pulse Torpedoes!

2008-12-22T03:02:00.000-08:00

After a break of about five years, I found myself having 5 games of Full Thrust and Battlefleet Gothic at the local gaming shop Area52. Two local gamers both independent of each other decided they needed a break from Warhammer40K and went looking for something new.

The first didn't stray too far from home and was looking for a opponent to face off against the Battlefleet Gothic imperial ships he was collecting. The second had heard about this 'Full Thrust' game and was wondering what it was all about. Suddenly I found my table converted to a spacedock as fleets of miniature spacecraft were rediscovered and repaired.

I have to admit that I really am surprised by Battlefleet Gothic, up until recently I had played exactly half a game when it first was released. My opponent for that game and I probably didn't like each other very much and while I had been busy painting my ships I hadn't had the chance to read the rules, my opponent derided me for daring to play without reading the rules and declared that he wouldn't be explaining them to me. Fair enough I thought as I started flipping through the rules, I decided to return the favour by making use of the special Elder movement rules to dash into extreme weapons range, pepper my opponent's ships with long range fire and turn around and run back to escape any return fire. And that's how it went until my opponent's friend turned up and pointed out another special Elder rule that increased my weapons batteries effectiveness, at this point my opponent decided the game was over. So that was that, my Elder ships were consigned to storage and I went back to Full Thrust and my NSL fleet.

So like I said this time round I'm surprised and after three much more fun attempts at BFG I have found I really like this game after all. Enormously big ships slug it out and the escorts have the life expectancy of a firefly, how can you not enjoy that? Too bad it's been relegated to the specialist games range.

The other two games of Full Thrust were equally enjoyable. I was able to wheel out first a Neu Swabian League fleet and then an alien Phalon Fleet. My opponent first borrowed my wife's Federal Stats Europa fleet and in the intervening week purchased and painted a 'new construction' Eurasian Solar Union fleet. I won the first game mostly due to some excellent luck and finished the second game with my Phalon battleship and heavy cruiser scurrying away behind the a wave of plasma bolts.

The break I've had from regularly playing Full Thrust has only served to reinforce how much I enjoy a wargame like Full Thrust after playing these two games. It's simple, yet flexible mechanics allows a surprising amount of detail, but it doesn't bog a new player down in page turning and they can get straight down to the business of pushing their miniature ships around the table.

On The Workbench - 26 Jan 2009

2009-01-26T00:21:00.000-08:00

Slowing down a bit, real life intrudes once more with painting rooms and bringing in hay. But there is still progress as all I have left to complete for my Phalon fleet are the two dreadnoughts, which are half complete.

And on a completely unrelated topic. Today is of course Australia Day and my little sister was awarded a Conspicuous Service Cross - look here. Go Stef!

Full Thrust, new style ESU against Phalons

2009-05-07T03:21:00.000-07:00

I played a game of Full Thrust against Ben today at Area52, his new style ESU fleet sporting it's new improved colour scheme delivered a solid victory against my Phalons. Here a two phone camera images of our fleets on the table.

Skirmish - Bug Run

2009-04-27T16:37:00.000-07:00

We managed to play another 'FMA Skirmish' game last Saturday afternoon. This time we tried what we call a 'bug run', a simple scenario where a defending force holds a position against a larger attacking force. The attacking force predominately made up melee troops attacks in waves down the length table toward the defender's position. The defending troops while small in number are equipped longer ranged weaponry and must use their range advantage to whittle down the attacking hordes to prevent their position being over run. In this game the defending force was a small squad of Mobile Infantry and their attackers not surprisingly were a horde of Arachnid bugs, made mostly of warrior bugs, some hoppers and a single tanker bug. The mobile infantry survived the day managing to keep the Arachnid menace at bay with well aimed rifle and grenade fire, although a few troopers did scatter to avoid some caustic tanker bug spit.

The Arachnid's begin their charge down the table.

The hopper bugs lead the way.

Another day on the range. The MI man their conveniently placed earthen ramparts to squeeze a few rounds off the bugs.

Skirmish Free For All

2009-04-18T17:09:00.000-07:00

Last Monday, some friends dropped by and we dug out a set of unpublished science fiction skirmish rules, FMA Skirmish, which we were involved in play testing for Ground Zero Games a few years ago. The scenario itself was a simple one, we each took a squad of 4 to 6 miniatures and proceeded to move on to the table. Prepared to take on all comers.

I fielded my Neu Swabian Jagers, Lachlan used his Covenant Elites from Halo clix, Beth brought her 'low tech' Australians. Nathan, borrowed my starship troopers mobile infantry 'cap' troopers and Brian used Beth's 'Dad's Army' miniatures.

Lachlan caught the worst of it as everybody else decided his Covenant Elites equipped with powered armour were the natural enemy of all other troops on the table that didn't have any. While Brian lamented the fact that his aged but venerable troops were armed with WW2 era bolt action rifles while his immediate neighbour on the table sported advanced assault rifles with a intergrated grenade launcher.

Not a very serious game, but a fun game none the less.

My NSL Jagers mob one of Lachlan's Covenant Elites, not content with wounding the Elite the 'puny humans' decided to add insult to injury by finishing it off in hand to claw combat. 'Sgt Wilson' once again finds himself offering sage advice to a more enthusiastic member of the platoon. Nathan's Mobile Infantry and my Jagers begin to trade shots and insults as Nathan suggests that I should ignore his troopers while I finish off the Covenant. Beth's 'low tech' Australians seek cover and wonder why it is? No matter where they go? They find these rustic dwellings?

The Oceanic Union - Just How Big Is It In The GZGverse?

2009-02-24T17:14:00.000-08:00

Some time ago for a bit of fun Beth and I decided to flesh out the Oceanic Union, one of the nation states in the GZG-verse. We looked at all the entries regarding the OU in all three of the GZG games, Full Thrust, Dirtside and Stargrunt. We also took note of the six star systems allocated to the OU on the unoffical star maps, developed a brief outline of the OU's development and Beth did a population model just to see how large the OU might be. Recenly I was digging through some boxes and found the list detailing the OU's population at the end of the published GZG timeline (Published Fleet Book 2). I've posted it here along with a very brief note on how we saw the OU.

Action Off Neptune - FSE Against The Kravak

2009-02-21T14:49:00.000-08:00

A while ago Beth wrote a series of 'news reports' and other fiction pieces based on Mars in Beth's version of the GZGverse. The articles were called 'New Guardian Archive of the Martian Campaign' are set in the Xenowar, when the Kra'Vak landed on Mars and set up a military base of operations there.

Recently we played a game and Beth took that as an opportunity to pick up on the series again. Here is a brief after action report from the commander of the Federal Stats Europa fleet off Neptune.

When Will The Fleet Arrive?

2009-02-20T19:20:00.000-08:00

Over the summer as well as painting miniatures I have managed to update my Full Thrust campaign rules. Recently borrowing from games like the Traveller 'Fifth Frontier War' I added a section introducing pre-plotted FTL movement to the campaign to simulate the problems commanding fleets spread over multiple parsecs when you don't have FTL communication.

You can find the campaign rules here - Just Whose Planet Is This Anyway?

Fast Movers For Dirtside.

2009-01-17T23:26:00.000-08:00

This morning I finally did another of those tasks you always intend on doing but never quite manage to do.

Ages ago I posted my Dirtside2 vehicle designs to my site (look here if you that interested) and over time I have added some images of the miniatures I use to represent them on the table top. This morning I finally got around to adding two images of the aerospace craft miniatures I use to support my hover tanks as they cruise across a arid plain on some far distant world, here they are.

By the way, Dirtside is a set of scifi ground combat rules by Ground Zero Games designed to be used with 6mm scale miniatures.

So That's What Computers Are For

2008-11-23T14:28:00.000-08:00

Recently I played a scenario from the World In Flames board game. It was the first introductory scenario, the German invasion of Russia, Operation Barbarossa. But I'll have to admit that even though I enjoyed myself playing as the Russians making fundamental errors that lost the game in two turns and allowed the Germans march on to Moscow, I did come away feeling somewhat overwhelmed. So many counters, so much information on the map, so many optional rules to choose to ignore and exactly how many resoursces did I have?

The problem isn't that the game mechanics are complicated, in fact they are simple indeed. The problem that there is a incredible amount of these simple steps required to play a game. What's really needed to play these type of games is a mechanism that automates the stepping through of the multitude of steps and that's when it dawned on me. That's what computers are for .........

So many miniatures, so little self control.

2008-11-13T02:35:00.000-08:00

There, just when I was thinking that I had my wargaming project impulse control well in hand. Having completed a block of WW2 British miniatures and starting on a squadron of Klingon starships now sitting on the workbench, but alas it is not to be. Now thanks to a thread in the local games shop forum I’ve convinced myself I want to, no! I need to dig out my Battlefleet Gothic Elder pirate fleet and complete that too. And in the process of digging out the Elder I also came across the three Rafik class frigate miniatures I had brought for Attack Vector ……

But now in a effort to divert attention from my current inability to actually finish painting a wargaming army I’d like to point out the most cool thing about my wife’s office, the view out the window. This is what was parked outside when I dropped her off at work this morning.

It is of course HMAS Tobruk, the Royal Australian Navy's heavy landing ship. Tobruk and various others like her are always appearing outside my wife's office window. Much more interesting than a view of a tree.