Troops of Special Designation

OK I appreciate I was supposed to be painting Perry Afrika Korps but on a trip through to Asgard Games  I got talking to some of the regulars who happened to mention Osprey's "Black Ops" rules, which they are intending to give a go in the near future.

I've been a bit wary about the series of rules being published by Osprey - they seem to churn them out with some regularity and all I have seen so far are skirmish \ fantasy \ sci fi type settings. My initial reaction was they were all a bit ephemeral. Anyway I took the plunge and bought a set of rules, and having had a look at the rules for Black Ops I may have to make a reassessment as they seem rather good (caveat - will know better after actually playing!)

Anyway they seem to fill an interesting gap in the rules front at the moment, and also push a couple of good buttons as far as I am concerned, low figure count (a cell of four Special Forces is about right for the starting games, although the defender will need more but less well trained), and happy coincidence that I already have some suitable lead. They are subtitles "Tactical Espionage Wargaming" and it is clear their inspiration is the many computer games and films set around elite troops creeping into or storming buildings, hideouts and the like. This was a bonus as I already had some 28mm Russian Spetznaz from The Assault Group lying around unfinished. So the DAK went on hold and after a couple of sessions of brushwork - the first "proper" painting of 2016 has produced enough serious Russians to play Black Ops but also to act as sinister guys in 7TV or any Zombie hunting game that happens along.

I'm really pleased with them, although the "urban" cammo is a bit of a pain to paint I think they look good. I have a couple more to finish to allow me to expand into two full cells plus command \ support, but with a bit of luck they should be done soon.

Then I can get back to DAK......

     

When the Stars are Right.................

Your Cthulhu Wars Kickstarter arrives!

Yup this massive box arrived this week after much expectation. Cthulhu Wars was launched as a Kickstarter in June  with an estimated delivery date of December the same year. Yup that means it has landed only 14 months behind schedule - Yay Kickstarter!

The designers were looking for $40,000 and instead they got $1.4 million. I suspect this is where the delays started to pile up as the designers had probably not expected that level of demand (no shit Sherlock! I hear you exclaim) and they had to rework all their production schedules. Anyway back then, this Kickstarter announcement coincided with a rare bit of good fortune so I was not only tempted but just about able to take part, and between us me and my regular gaming partner Paul managed to scrape together the ££ or $$ to get one of the "bigger" pledges. Our main reason was the figures, which were promised to be 28mm and therefore usable in other games, Call of Cthulhu RPGs and just nice to have around, and there are a lot of them, even in just the basic box. The actual game was of secondary importance - board games had only a passing interest at that point.

In the year and a bit that followed we sort of got resigned to the fact it would be here sooner or later - and by the constant delivery date push backs, probably later. Strangely however in that time we did start playing some board games which is a happy coincidence. The game has finally arrived - all six kilos worth, and we broke it out and tried it Monday night. I have to say we really enjoyed it. Very interesting to play, with the four different factions having totally different options as to how to meet the same victory conditions. The models are pretty damned good too - although original plans to paint them may have to go on hold - there are just so damned many.

Was it worth the costs and delay? Not sure. I am certain that I would not be in a position to pay the RRP on the bundle we are getting \ have got, which is "silly" at £120 for the starter set alone, so maybe. If I had known about the delay, probably not. On the whole I'm happy we took the chance.

So if there are delays reporting on stuff happening on the blog, at least some of those may be down to the arrival of some Great Old Ones.