Spring is here! April excitement, Salute, plans and plots

April in the UK is great. Spring is here, beautiful crisp sunny mornings (between about 9.02 and 9:30 am), flowers appear, lots of daffodils, and for the wargaming community, we all come out of hibernation to sniff the fresh air, soak up the sunshine, and for Salute, this year held on April 14th at the ExCel.

Salute remains wargamings big UK event. VERY big. I've a love\hate relationship with Salute. In the past I've had a mixed day at Salute - sometimes it can be overwhelming and for me it is a long haul - 260 miles each way and no change out of 4 and a half hours drive, plus another hour in the queue. I've been a couple of times by train and last year the luxury of a car share where I got to be the passenger all the way both ways. This year I'm "designated driver" but we've wangled some accommodation so the cunning plan is to cruise down Friday then Tube \ DLR to the ExCel. It can be a pain getting in but once you get in however, well, you get to feel the love :-).

This year I'm helping demo Dropfleet Commander at the TT Combat DZC pitch, alongside Emily K who is demoing Dropzone Commander. I'm looking forward to this as it will be the first chance to meet the new TT Combat DZC\DFC team and chat about "the future" after they took over Hawk Wargames. Additionally there will be the "show specials" available, plus hopefully the new Dropfleet Destroyers on sale for the first time. That could be expensive :-(

But there's more! Rather a lot of companies use Salute as a showcase and launch games to coincide. This year there are two games I am really looking forward to playing -  "What a Tanker" from Two Fat Lardies, and (no surprise) Blood Red Skies from Warlord Games. WAT has a release date of 9th April but Rich (the Lard Meister) is running a "rolling" demo game where you can just turn up, drive a tank around to get a feel for the game mechanics, have fun, then probably blow up!

Blood Red Skies isn't due for release until mid May but customers who pre ordered (err me !) will get theirs a month before or can arrange to pick up at Salute - there's a link here if you want to do that - and if you have not pre ordered if you are quick you may still get one. Warlord are planning to have a limited supply available at Salute, and they're running a stunning demo with a 1:200 scale attack on the USS Hornet which should be spectacular.

And then there's the other stuff that you just run across when you are wandering (assuming I can escape the stand for a while).

So it is looking like a rather busy April, and I'm really looking forward to these new games landing.

On the subject of Sporing and Spring Cleaning I've done a bit of tidying up here on the Blog, a couple of layout changes, and importantly a nice, shiny new "follow" button which for some reason (probably my incomprehension) should have been there all along but wasn't. It's over here somewhere near the top ================================>>>>>>>>>
Please click it - not only will you get notifications on any updates here but you will also (probably) get a nice warm feeling from knowing you are making a curmudgeonly old gamer a bit happier. Thanks :-)

Blood Red Skies - Ace Box

Following on from the previous post, the other booty I grabbed at Warlord Games when I visited them was a couple of Ace Pilots.

These are single model planes with special pilot abilities. Currently there are one for each nationality represented in the game and the model is the "standard" plane for their nationality.

In the box you get a plane - in this case a Spitfire, advantage base, aircraft card, and the associated Trait card and stickers. These are all identical to those in the Squadron box set (and I assume the Starter set). You also get a pair of two sided Ace Pilot Skill Disks, one with the named pilot (Sailor Malan for the Brits), the other a generic one. The "named" one is in a rather striking black colour scheme that will really make these stand out on the table. You get the the Ace card itself which lists his or her abilities and skills, and the associated Ace skill cards. The skill disks and Zoom counter (the little winged symbol that you place down to indicate your pilot has moved) are different colours from those in the Starter set - a nice touch if you like that sort of thing.

 Malan has one ability boost - +1 firepower, plus two skills, "Set Them Up" which assists friendlies when shooting and "Killer Instincts" which is one of the more scary ace skills as it converts hits from 3" or less to Critical Hits - harder to dodge. Given Malan is rolling 7 firepower dice in his Spitfire II  this looks really deadly. Malan costs 130 points (significantly more than a standard generic Ace which is 100 points) and the others are similarly 125-130 points.

Ok as I'm already talking "points" I should mention in addition to a historic or straight match up mode BRS has a point system to allow tournament or pick up style play, and the suggested limit is 500 points a player.  I'm sure this will be a popular option as it will allow a certain amount of list building and all that if you want to go down that route, but the "build your own Ace" will surely five new options you dont usually see in this sort of game. Once wave one gets released there will be plenty of discussion about build options but I'll save that for another time.

I've no clear idea what the RRP of Ace expansions will be. If Warlord price them carefully I can see there being plenty of scope for new named Aces to follow, and of course there is still the option to "build your own" Ace - although these will be restricted to only one skill.

So hurry up HM Customs and pass that lorry load of Blood Red Skies so I can get my pre ordered starter set!

Blood Red Skies - Squadron Box Lands

Yesterday I had the change to visit Warlord Games HQ in Nottingham and have a chat with Richard C who is handling the project.

Had a visit, played a game and managed to get some more details AND get hold of a production copy of one of the Squadron packs and Ace packs. This was the first time I have seen anything other than pre production stuff.  So without further ado....

The Squadron box is probably where people will start expanding after they get the starter set. The box contains everything you need to add a new Squadron to your game - in fact just about possible to play a starter game by just having a Squadron box each and downloading the basic rules from Warlord if you wanted, but I think you would miss out on some of the options.

The Spitfire Squadron box contains :

6 Spitfire MkII models
6 Advantage bases
A sheet of card skill disks, activation tokens, range ruler etc
Spitfire Data card,
6 "Tight Turn" trait cards (The Spitfire's special trait card)
1 "Wall of Lead" doctrine card
1 "Radar Support" theatre card
1 "Slippery" Ace skill card
1 sheet of self adhesive stickers

That's enough to play the Squadron "out of the box" if you wanted to just stick the roundels on, and clearly the game has been designed to allow you to do just that, or put the extra time and effort into painting etc.

Quality wise the cards and counters are exactly what you would expect - the cards are printed on thin but quality card and are sized to standard game sleeves if you wanted to go down that route. The inclusion of an Ace skill card is interesting. In theory as well as the named "Ace" pilots that are being released you can create your own Aces using the Ace skill cards included in the Squadron packs, Ace packs (and presumably the Starter Set) combined with the an Ace Skill Disk. The Squadron box contains an Ace skill card but no Ace Skill Disk, which seems a bit of a miss, but there is a spare Ace Skill Disk in the named Ace expansion sets and Starter box set however.  I'm sure this is an oversight rather than an evil plan to make you buy the Ace expansion.

The counters are printed in full colour on a good quality thick card and look like they will take a lot of handling, and you get six "Boom" chits, Zoom tokens and 3 High Cover Markers and a range ruler. Again that's enough to play all six models.

The Spitfires are pretty good too. I'm going to do a more in depth review comparing them to other models out there in due course, but in short they are good enough - although you may need to give them a hot water bath to straighten some which have bent a little in transport.

All in all I was pleasantly surprised and will be looking forward to my set when it arrives, and as  "The Big Container of Stuff" full of Blood Red Skies toys is now waiting in customs in the UK, it should be "Soon" :-)

RRP is £20

Next post will be a look at the Ace expansion box...

Austrian Hungarian Legation Peking Blues

Our "little" side project continues to grow. This week we tried a different scenario. We are still suffering a lack of buildings but this is gradually being addressed but we are still using some of our rather dodgy mdf types. The objective being to polish the rules and generate a scenario to the point we can run through a game with half a dozen players. The Men Who Would Be Kings (TMWWBK)  rules already cover most situations, but we wanted to make some tweaks to suit our circumstances.

This time we are testing out our machine guns. In this case an Austrian Skoda (there was at least one at Peking, possibly two) and a Royal Navy Nordenfeldt (but due to a technical fail this was a Gattling model). The Scenario revolves around a relief attempt by the British to reach and rescue the Austrians in their Legation - which for this game is a walled compound. The Austro Hungarians have one unit plus the Skoda, the Brits two units of Marines and a Nordenfeldt.

Initial table - Austrians in the Compound, Brits enter at other end of the table

Initially everything was quiet, however this changed as the British advanced. As they approached the choke point of the canal bridges the Boxers started to appear, mostly massing at the other side of the bridges, but also to the flank. The flanking troops were ruthlessly cleared by the nearest Marines, and the Boxers, driven by the "Mr Babbage" system from TMWWBK seemed happy to just mill around cautiously around the bridges.

This gave the Austro- Hungarian mg a target - even if at long range, and they "had a go". The Skoda M93 is a typical A-H piece of technology - fine in principle but practically hamstrung by a minor and wholly predictable problem - in this case the gun ammunition is fed by a manually loaded chute on top, so the practical rate of fire is quite limited - about a quarter of what a (then) modern Maxim (or US Colt) could achieve.

The other problem with the Skoda was the junior officer was rated as a Brutal leader, which caused a -2 discipline modifier for the gun. As firing requires the unit to pass a discipline test this was not great, increasing the target number from 6 plus to 8 plus on 2d6. Even so, they managed to hit one Boxer unit hard and pin it down. Meanwhile the sailors who made up the main part of the garrison manned the barricade at the gate and fired down the street at the Boxers. The range was long, but a couple of hits from an unexpected direction pinned the Boxers.

At this point it was looking ok for the Legation. The Boxers were pinned between the admittedly desultory fire from the Legation and the volleys of the Marines and Sailors.

and then...

A unit of Boxers appeared at the corner of the wall, close to the Skoda gun. The gun commander ordered the gun to turn to engage, but the crew, possibly scared into helplessness by the brutish officer,  failed to respond. Happily the Boxers also seemed to be struck down by indecisiveness and they hesitated. All over the Legation a sigh of relief was heard - both sides had bungled. The Austro Hungarian Sailors redeployed towards the threatened wall.

Which is what "Mr Babbage" - the game's simplified system for managing the Boxers actions - was waiting for apparently. You test each time you move a unit to see if this generates more enemy, and almost as though scripted a unit of Boxers appeared directly at the barricaded gate.

The sailors turned and fired into the advancing Boxers as they crossed the barricades, pinning them. Meanwhile the Boxers outside the wall took this as their signal and rushed to the wall. The Skoda had them at point blank range, and passed it's firing test - and rolled 5 "1s" - a jam and no casualties caused!

The Boxers swarmed the wall and killed the crew as they tried to un-jam the gun.

The sailors turned to try and stop them, but it was too late and the garrison troops were caught, fighting bravely but being overwhelmed and destroyed.

As the Boxers set fire to the Legation it became clear the rescue attempt had failed. The Marines and Sailors fell back, the game clearly over.

Well, almost. The Nordenfeld gun had played little part in the battle so far, which suited its commander very well as he was a coward - he had to attempt to keep his unit out of charge range of the enemy. Unfortunately the Boxers were not going to cooperate forever, and a rather aggressive group burst from around the buildings and attacked and killed the gunners as they tried to retreat with their gun.

That was the last act of our game. Boxer casualties had been quite heavy - at least two units were wiped out by the European's fire, but the loss of the Legation building was a terrible blow. A great game was had, and thanks to Sam, Paul and Charlie for taking part.

That should be our last Boxer game for a while - looking forward in anticipation to both Blood Red Skies from Warlord, and What a Tanker from Two Fat Lardies, and I expect these will be taking up my time for the next few weeks.

Aim low part 2

Quick update - yup I got the other 3 buildings done - here is Luigi Berlesconi and his brave shipmates moving down the street

and I was thinking about the walls for my Legation.

As Richard Sharpe would say - "Aim low, fire more often"

The internet is a wonderful thing. It allows us to see and share our projects, the materials and techniques we use, and in doing so can be a great source of inspiration. Have a look here and you can see what I mean Canister & Grape blog  Superb work.

Musing a while however, I am also aware that there is also a danger of making comparisons with others projects, and finding yours wanting, becoming disillusioned with the result of another shelved project. This has happened to me countless times in the past.

Looking back at those Boxer Rebellion buildings I mentioned in the last blog post, it is fair to say they are OK, but not great. Of course I would like to be great, and I probably possess some of the skills (not all) to improve them. The question is, because they are not great, should I spend time and money making them better or plough on accepting "not Great" is "good enough"?  I could source some plastic tiled roof sections and incorporate them? Get some resin accessories? Buy in some mdf windows and doors etc?

I'm going to say "no" to all that at the moment, because above all else I've come to the conclusion that although they will never be up to a demonstration standard, what I really need now is to plough on and make the most \ best of what I\we have now so we have enough to make the game work. I can always come back and rejuvenate them at a later date, but for now what I want is volume, not accuracy. They're "good enough" for now

So how to progress? This afternoon, assuming the snow allows, I will spray another three buildings with the hope of getting them finished tonight. That's a bit ambitious I think, but time will tell.

Planning slightly further ahead I'm going to investigate using the same basic buildings as the more imposing Legation buildings. It may seem strange but the offset between the size and scale of the  buildings and the table area means any attempt at a realistic model is doomed to failure. That being said all we need is something representative, and having accepted that, maybe there is some use to be had recycling the old carcasses . I'll stare meaningfully at them tomorrow and see what I can come up with.

No corner left uncut - Boxer Rebellion Buildings

Sometimes I have some stupid ideas. As I mentioned a little while ago our club (Hartlepool Wargames Society) is looking for a social game - something a bit Beer & Pretzels that a lot of us can get around a table and enjoy. We were looking at Boxer Rebellion using "The Men Who Would Be Kings" (TMWWBK) from Osprey.

Last night we gave them a trial run, just using some odds and sods of terrain we have lying around. If we do decide to commit we will have a couple of building sessions - probably resulting in a "my Legation is bigger than Yours" contest :-)  At the moment however we have an embarrassing lack of suitably Oriental buildings - so much so that I borrowed a few from the nice and friendly proprietor of Asgard Wargames in Middlesbrough (Ste didn't need them as he will be shut today and I will return them tomorrow). Even then it became obvious that we will need more, but as we were just messing about on a scratch table we dug out some old mdf buildings that were lying around. These had been rushed off some time ago for a Bolt Action tournament ran by one of our members. Frankly they are as rough as a badgers arse, and painted primer grey, but beggars can't be choosers and we have dozens of the things unloved and unused.

The game went well as a first test, and we are going again tonight with up-scaled forces and more players, but as I was packing up last night I found myself staring at our unloved Bolt Action buildings - could they be converted to use for China in 1900?

The reason I thought it may be possible was the windows - which were more grill like than usual. The roofs are a bit too high and regular but that's a bridge that can be crossed later.

I was lucky enough in my first years at secondary school (back in the 1970s) to be taught woodwork by a Gent called Lawrence Marshall, who coincidentally happened to be my uncle - well sort of anyway, it was complicated. Mr Marshall, as all the 12 year old boys called him, was a man with a terrifying reputation but who turned out to be a superb teacher who taught us how to use our tools with care and attention, take our time,  measure twice, cut once. Sadly this was going to be the exact opposite as I only had a couple of hours between work tasks. At lunch time I grabbed a building I had brought home on the off chance, a pot of PVA, some coffee stirrers and a pair of side clippers and decided to have a go - the aim being to convert one before this evening's rerun. No frills, no measuring, working as fast as I could with minimum tools or prep and just a Mk 1 eyeball and TLAR (That Looks About Right). Mr Marshall would not approve.

An hour later and I was looking for some roofing material - and discovered some corrugated card in the loft. In a total frenzy and a short time later not one, but two buildings were "done".

Inspired or possessed I grabbed a couple of cans of spray and "went for it". Primer white walls, Army painter Fur roof, some really crap US imported suede to base (that stuff is awful).

4:30 and the US spray is still wet, but bugger it I am committed so some very quick drybrushing and detailing.

5.00pm done

And incidentally I also did some more "normal" work AND made a rather fine Toad in the Hole for our tea (Dinner if you are Southern), watched "Pointless" on BBC 1 and was out the door at 6:00pm to taxi my ageing mother to her devotions at the local Bingo before heading down to the club for the game.

Here are the two finished buildings with some Legation defenders

Then at 7pm our game began. Sadly due to my misreading of the rules it ended very badly for the Legation troops who were trying to silence a Boxer battery - they got cut off and cut up amid the ruins of buildings burned in the earlier riots - here is the high water mark as Austro-Hungarian and Italian sailors vie for the glory of reaching the guns first. All the figures are from the Boxer Rebellion range available from Andy C at Old Glory.

I'm rather pleased with the buildings. I still think the pitch of the roof is wrong, but they now look slightly more Oriental, and with a little more care I think they will do just fine - now all I need is the Tartar City Wall and a couple of Legations building and..............

and Stop Press! As I was spreading PVA and cutting coffee stirrers I talked on Skype to the multi talented Dave Gray about the possibility of doing a laser cut roof to convert out BA buildings, and quick as a flash he came up with this - it is a new roof and detailing set. Rather nice I think - Well Done  Dave!