V3 News from Battlefront

As many of you know, Battlefront is about to release Flames of War version 3.  Check out this video for some news about the new books, and the sweet freebie that our Kiwi friends are giving to folks who own a copy of V2.

Initially I was very worried when I heard that V3 was coming out.  I felt this way because I am very fond of the version 2 rules, and can think of little that I would change.  Now that I have heard some of the rumors about what is likely to change, and how, I am very excited about the new edition!  It’s going to be quite a hustle to get up on these prior to Adepticon, but the rest of the group is chomping at the bit as well, so I imagine that the spring will be replete with the sound of tank engines, machine-gun fire, and exploding artillery shells!

Say what you want about various game companies, their supporters (fan-boys), and detractors (whine-asses), but I am often impressed by Battlefront’s ability to rock!  I guess this makes me a fan-boy!  😀

real tanks wear skirts – New Blog!

http://realtankswearskirts.blogspot.com/

This is my friend Joey’s blog featuring his adventures in Flames of War!  Check it out!

SS Tank Hunters

Here are some WIP shots of my SS Tank Hunters/Scouts.

I am still learning how to use the new camera.  Hint: I need more light.

Since I have wrapped up this platoon, I have begun on the army’s HQ section, and 1st platoon.  I have made the camo a bit more detailed, and covering a greater area.  I think its looking a bit more accurate than on these guys.  Not that I am disappointing with the results above.  These guys are going to be part of my army for Adepticon!

Hail Caesar – Dark Ages Campaign Round 2

We have been playing a bunch of Hail Caesar for a Non-historical Dark Ages campaign. Here are some shots of Saxons vs Arabians, and Normans vs An Army of Byzantium.

View of the Normans from the Byzantine line

Norman line, waiting for the battle to begin.

Heavy spear - proxied by Alexander's pike phalanx

Mr. Humphrey surveying the battlefield

Chris (Byzantium) faced off against my infantry heavy Norman army. We had an interesting game that was characterized primarily by a lot of maneuvering driven by a desire for our heavy units to find a weakness to exploit in the opposing lines. There were a few last minute charges that occurred before we had to call it a night. We kind of messed up terrain placement which made getting into combat kind of tricky.

Gaming table phase 2

I’ve used some lightweight spackling compound to patch up the gaps between layers of the hills, and have added some small stones to create a region of rough terrain on a steep area. This will need some sanding to clean up the spackle, and perhaps shape the hillside some more.

Next step will be to get a coat of primer on the board. I am going to use some leftover interior house-paint from when the girlfriend and I painted our living room.

Norman Invasion!

Recently I have become infatuated by historicals, and have been making some progress on a Norman/Early Crusader army. The plan is that the army will be used for late Dark Ages battles up to the battles of the Kingdom of Jerusalem after the 1st Crusade. This project has been very satisfying after some recent frustrations with my miniature hobbies. The Warriors of Chaos army has become a burn, and I still need to figure out what the heck I want to do with my Legion of Everblight minis for Hordes. The US armor project for Flames of War has been going well, but I simply haven’t put much time in to it lately. I have a significant obligation with the Norman project, as many of the minis were provided to me as part of a campaign army that will be part of a large event happening at Adepticon 2012.

So far the army consists of…

• 12x Norman Knights
• 12x Mercenary Cavalry (Medium Cavalry)
• 24x Spear Heavy Infantry
• 24x Spear Heavy Infantry
• 24x Hand Weapon Heavy Infantry
• 24x Hand Weapon Medium Infantry
• 24x Spear Levy
• 16x Archers

Most of this is assembled and on bases, but only the spear levy have any significant amount of paint on them. I have some of the heavy infantry under way to figure out how I want to accomplish the chain-mail & other armor. Right now that is simply black under coat with a metallic drybrush. I think that they will require some more work/layers to really get them to pop.

I’ll try to post some work in progress pics of the spear levy once I can take them.

Adepticon, Viet Cong, and Vegetation

With Adepticon mere days away, I am putting the polish on my Warriors of Chaos army for the Championship.  It is pretty nice to get units knocked out.  While these are coming along well, I find myself needing the occasional break, so I have also been working on some terrain.  The terrain has been 15mm jungle terrain for Flames of War.  So far I’ve made some area terrain filler, jungle plants for big areas of elephant grass, and a prototype of a palm-tree.  These didn’t turn out too shabby.  I will have to post some images as well as some details as to how they were made.

I hope to also put some images up of the Viet Cong models I have painted.  So far its some AK47 stands, a B40 rocket team, and 3 HMG bunkers.  Once Adepticon is over, I am going to get into gear a bit more with this project.

Firestorm Armada News

I wanted to let folks know that I will be running some FSA demos at Adepticon on Sunday.  Swing by and play some quick games if you would like to check it out.

Also…

Spartan games has released some pics of some new ships that are coming out.

xelocian dreadnought

RSN banshee

bakash cruiser

These are dreadnoughts (bigger than battleships) for 3 new (to me anyway) races.  These are looking pretty slick, although I imagine they will have to have larger bases than the battleships do now… these things will be huge if they are to scale with the other models in the line.

Low Fantasy

Like many WHFB players I have been reading many of the blogs, forum postings, and had numerous conversations regarding how the game has changed with 8th edition.  There are some calls in the tournament scene to start to develop some composition guidelines (something that has wisely been avoided in the initial tournaments of 8th ed. to give the core rules their fair shake).  I have heard about some ideas regarding using 3 rolls of a 6 to trigger IF, while a miscast still comes up with only 2 6s.  The no double rare thing is starting to come back.  Some of our gaming group is starting to experiment with Warhammer Ancient Battle style army break points in WHFB as well.  All of these are ways that people are experimenting with to make WHFB more enjoyable, and manageable, especially as a tournament game.  The other thing that could come of this is that 8th ed could develop a “Low Fantasy” play option for those folks who are into that sort of thing.

In earlier editions of WHFB, people got into playing low fantasy styled games, ones where things like dragons, super-heroes, and uber-magic were somewhat more limited than usual.  The idea was to create some depth to the way that armies were depicted in the game, and perhaps give more of a sense of rarity to certain elements to the game.  Tournaments have tried to encourage core unit selections in various ways over the years, as both a way to create less vicious armies, but also a more thematic experience for players.

Obviously one of Games Workshop’s goals with 8th ed. was to make the game more fantastic.  I think they did a pretty good job with this, and hopefully it won’t lead to the next round of army books being overly wacky, or continuing 7th ed style ‘one upping’ in terms of relative power.   It is not my point here to say that playing high fantasy is a bad thing, but something that can be supplemented with other styles of play.

It will be interesting to see if some low fantasy leagues catch on, or at least some discussion about it online.  Clubs could learn a lot about balancing, and the effect on gamer experience from experimenting with low fantasy rules.  This could lead to some renewed thought towards what the goal is for tournament organizers, and their respective events.

What Would Patton Do?

In addition to being a big fan of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, I am also an avid Flames of War player. My friend Jason let me know about a pretty good podcast about Flames of War located at www.whatwouldpattondo.net. They discuss tactics, tournaments, painting, and whatever else comes up that is vaguely World War 2 themed. Check it out!