Clockwork Goblin Shreckwulfen

I was very honored to be asked if I'd like to paint some of Clockwork Goblins prototype Shrekwulfen figures for their 28mm War without End range of weird war models. 

These are very fun figures, and very nicely done with lots of character. The figures are due to be released very shortly, and Clockwork Goblin often upload Bolt Action compatible rules for their models too.

I'm not sure what the price will be on these yet, but Clockwork Goblin seem to aim to keep their prices in line with all the other major manufacturers.The Shreckwulfen are fairly large and have a significan presence to them, and look great alongside figures from say Warlords range.

If your into weird war I really recommend checking out the range! 

 

As ever you can see more of my work at Volley Fire Painting service and you can keep an eye on Clockwork Goblins rather cool ranger at their website http://www.clockworkgoblinminis.co.uk/

Waterloo Game

To commemorate the bicentennial anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo my Bro Jay and I have been planning a big game of Black Powder to coincide with the anniversary at his pub the Marquis of Lorne in Gillingham, Kent. Unfortunately due to work and time constraints I wasn't able to get enough figures done so we decided to do a series of linked skirmish games using the Musket and Tomahawk rules.

We played 4 games, in total, first was the recreation of the French attack at Hougamont Farm, The second was the French cavalry attacks. Third game was the British advance, and the final game was the Prussian attack on Plancenoit. Initially the campaign was going to be 3 games, so I had only drawn up scenarios for the first 3 games with victory points towards the campaign progression, so haven't included the final Plancenoit battle in the outcome.

 I had intended to add Hannoverians and Nassau forces, as well as more French of various types, however was unable to get these finished in time, so our games were very much a British versus French affair.

Hougamont

This battle saw us set up the farm complex in the top center of the 6x4 board we would be using for all 4 games. This scenario required the French to break into the courtyard of Hougamont and remain there for an entire turn. The British would win if they managed to prevent this. 

 

The winner would receive 2 Victory points towards the campaign total. I had 2 units of riflemen, and 2 units of light infantry in the complex, and had to hold out against recycling waves of small units of French Line, Chasseurs and Grenadiers for 8 turns.

 On the 4th turn the British forces were reinforced with some more Guards infantry. This was a very hard fought battle, we both forgot to take note of just how many casualties but the sharp shooters on the roof took a heavy toll on the French.

Towards the end of the battle the French did break into the farm complex, but were cut down. They nearly broke in a second time, but were driven back at the very last minute with a few short range musket volleys. If we had played another turn or two the outcome may have been different, but ultimately it was a victory for the British!

2 Victory Points to British!

Charge!

This scenario pitched waves of French cavalry (Lancers as that was all we had) attacking the British Squares and guns. We ruled that the squares couldn't move, and could only fire from each facing. The melee rules in M&T are a little weak with regards to cavalry, so we left those as they were. Victory points in this scenario were awarded with 1 point being awarded for each gun destroyed or square broken. To break a square the cavalry had to kill an entire facing. Conversely British forces recieved a victory point for each gun and square surviving at the end of turn 6. The French took a lot of casualties, but were ultimately able to break one square, and see off the crews of both guns. The final British square was too much for them though, and they were finally driven off.

3 Victory Points to the French, and 1 for the British!

The British Advance

This was intended to be the final battle of our linked scenarios, however we ended up playing one further game after this. 

 The scenario this time was for the both forces to score points for destroying the opposing forces units, and bonus points for being in their deployment zone. 1 Victory point was awarded per unit destroyed, and 2 additional points for having a unit in within 12 inches of the opposing players table edge. 

 Forces involved were 4 ten man line units, 2 5 man rifle units and 2 5 man light units for for the British, against 2 10 man line units, a 12 man line unit, a command unit, and a small unit each of grenadiers and chasseurs for the French, as well as some lancers.

Jay had possibly the worst luck with dice I have ever seen in all my years of gaming, whereas mine was spectacular, this combined to allow the British to annihilate the French for minimal casualties. 

7 Victory points to the British, The French, Erm...

Plancenoit

We had a bit of time left and a new player, so decided to do a small, plancenoitish game, with 2 units of 10 Prussian Line against 12 French Line, 4 Grenadiers and 4 Chasseurs. This used a similar scenario to the Hougamont game, except the Prussians weren't going to be recycled. 

They had to get to the centre of Plancenoit and then hold it for a turn, with 2 Victory points being awarded to the Prussians if they managed it, and to the French if they managed to defend.This was another very bloody game that came right down to the wire, ultimatly though the French Chasseurs managed to drive off the Prussians, and that was the end of the game.

2 Points to the French!

Total Victory Points for the campaign

10 points to the British and allies, 5 for the French.

 

This was a very fun series of linked games, and I urge anyone to give it a go, even if it requires thinking outside the box a little As ever you can see more of my work here at Volley Fire Painting service and if your in Kent and are interested in having a game in a pub, drop Jay a message at The Marquis of Lorne Ale house

Trenchworx FT17 and Rolls Royce armoured car review

Today I'm looking at a couple of vehicles I've recently built as part of a commission for my friend Rob.

Trenchworx are a new company (To me anyway), and started off producing 3D printed models, but are now moving to doing resin kits. Trenchwox have recently had a very successful kickstarter to expand the range with early WW2 (And pre-war) Russian and Japanese armour.



 Trenchworx also have some interesting items for other ranges, including a beautiful looking T-38 and German heavy howitzer. If your looking for something obscure this is a company to watch.

Rob sent me the FT17's fully assembled, however the Rolls Royce were for me to build, and they were incredibly easy to assemble. parts were impressively crisp, and detail very sharp.


















I don't know if it's included in all their kits, but the Rolls Royce armoured cars actually had magnets as well to hold the turret in place. The resin feels very much like an injection molded plastic as used by say Warlord or Rubicon, however it still needs to be bonded with superglue.Building both the rollers took maybe 10 minutes, including the time spent looking for a magnet I dropped, and drinking my coffee.

As the resin was quite shiny and an unknown resin to me, I decided to go all out with priming the models and used an ultrasonic bath and automotive primers for the armoured cars, however Rob had just done a normal clean up and prep for the FT-17's, and I didn't notice any difference to paint adhesion, the resin seems to really accept paint well even with its glossy, smooth texture.





For the camo pattern on the Rollers I used Russian Uniform with the disruptive green applied using Reflective green, with weathering carried out with artists oils.

The FT-17's I used the same green's, but also used a mixed light grey, and sand yellow for those vehicles that needed it. Mostly they were done using trial and error however! These were weathered with artists oils, and then some Mig pigments which were sealed with Mig pigment fixer. 

I'd thoroughly recommend these kits, and look forwards to what the future brings. Click this link to visit the Trenchworx website, and you can see more of my own work at Volley Fire Painting

If your in the United States, and more specifically Ohio, it's worth taking a look at the Bolt Action Ohio Facebook page too https://www.facebook.com/groups/308871755930203/?ref=bookmarks

Terminator Genisys Miniatures Game review

Before we start, click here and have your speakers on.

Done it?  If not 'Do it, do it now! (Yes different franchise, but still).

First off a disclaimer, I've been a fan of the Terminator series for as long as I can remember, longer, probably given how bad my memory is. I'm also a fan of Alessio Cavatore's work, so when I first discovered that he was writing a rule set for a game based up the upcoming movie I was extremely excited, then I discovered that the figures were being sculpted by the Perry's and I spent the next 3 days squealing like a 12 year old girl at a Justin Beiber concert. As such writing an objective review will be difficult, but I'll give it a go.

What do you get for your 70 quid? 

Lots. For the purposes of clarity I shall elaborate. a set of card range rulers,  All the card counters you could need for the game, and a set of card barricades and terrain markers. There is also a quick play rule book, a reference sheet, a selection of fancy dice, a double sided printed heavy paper play mat, 10 Terminator Endoskeletons, 5 Terminator Crawlers, 16 Resistance fighters, and a Kyle Reese miniature. All the figures are hard plastic, apart from Kyle Reese, and are scaled to 28mm scale. Oh yes, and a very nice rule book too.More on that next...

The Rules

I love simple rules, especially ones that add a sense of the dramatic without being complicated. The rules for Terminator are very simple, I was able to pick them up and have a solo test game whilst eating my breakfast yesterday. Initiative is decided at the beginning of each turn with a dice roll off, then the highest scoring player rolls a special fate dice to see how many models they can activate, 1-2 or none, then once they have done something the 'Impulse' as it's called ends and the opponent gets to roll the fate die. This is repeated until all models have activated, the turn is then over, and the cycle begins anew. 

Moving and fighting is very simple, based on skill based dice rolls, the better someone is at a task the bigger the dice they can use for the test, the largest dice being the D20. This is nicely colour coded in the rules and reference sheet too, meaning you can play without having to worry about keeping track of modifiers to dice scores.

Some mechanics particularly shined to me, I loved the wat commanders can allow you to reroll a fate die in certain conditions, and inspire other models to act with them. By far the coolest though is the system for allowing you to put down a stunned enemy with an action called (What else) 'Hasta La vista'. 

Playing through the quick start rules, I think it took me about 45 minutes to play through 2 scenarios and get my head into how it works. I've since been working my way through the main rule book and can't wait to play some bigger games. 

The rule book does contain pointed army lists, as well as rules for vehicles and AIRCRAFT!!!!

I can see myself using these for other games as well. I'm already considering a 40k conversion, and using them for modern and near future games as well. 

The Models

Machines

You get 10 Endoskeletons in 2 poses. These are simple quick to assemble plastic models, although the poses are quite static, that's the nature of the beast. Watch any of the movies and the Endoskeletons aren't that nimble. Saying that they are also very easy to repose and convert. You can see some I made earlier Here who have been converted somewhat. Also my paint recipe is there too if you want to know how I did the chrome.

You also get 5 crawlers too. Whats a crawler you may ask! When a Terminator is killed, there's a chance it may come back as a crawler. No guns, but it can give your resistance fighters ankles a nasty chewing as I discovered during one of my test games... 

Resistance

You get 4 sprues of 4 plastic fighters sculpted by the Perry's. The torsos's are one piece, with arms fitted that hold their weapons added to this. 

 

The models themselves are nicely detailed, and all share at least a passing resemblance to 80's action heroes. In terms of weapons, there is a missile launcher, grenade launcher, and several plasma and assault rifles on each sprue, as well as a set of arms wielding a shot gun. Again the figures are cleanly molded and very characterful, matching up well to the pictures of the resistance from the upcoming film. 

I' ve attached a pic of an Endo and a  resitance fighter next to a Warlord plastic German, as you can see, they are a little taller, but still good. These figures could also make good alternatives for those 40k players on a budget looking to flesh out their Guard and Necron forces. 

Kyle Reese is metal, and slightly taller than the plastic figures in the set. I believe this is an effort to make the hero figures stand out from the rank and file, and whilst it's not particularly noticeable, there's enough difference for it to work.

Conclusion

In all, I think this is a superb package, containing everything you need to get playing the game quickly, and have enough options so that no 2 games will be the same. I'm excited to see what the future holds for the game especially in relation to the film franchise

If I were to try and pic some critiques some more film specific scenarios would have been good, however I understand that the licensing is a huge constraint here, and I suspect more will be available through the River horse website and Facebook group for the game. I'd also like to see more of a tie in with the earlier films, however again this comes into conflicts of licenses, and is somewhat nit picking as the rules even have pointed lists for 1984 Police units... 

As ever you can find more of my work at Volley Fire Painting Service, all figures in this review were painted by myself.You can order the game itself from Warlord Games