June 17 2023 Cardiff,so Firestorm Games Goes Down a Storm

The club day out. We decided to pop into Firestorm Games.

When I say wargame shop most of you will think or if you have one in your town will conjure an image of a small well hidden shop, poorly lit and with models and games if lucky that you want, normally with a proprietor wearing a funny tee shirt but not seeming to care if you buy anything or has the stock answer” I may be able to order that in for you”.

Well no more, the image has been changed forever by Firestorm Games. Huge , bright modern facilities, massive range of products and all at fantastic pricing, plenty of tables, loyalty programme, food and even a bar!

I have never been to a Firestorm Games shop before and I belive they have 3, so please check them out.

It was Taff who suggested we visit and play a game. So I took BattleMasters as a simple and visual game for newbies as we had played it once, a couple of years ago. More later.

The store opened at 10am and we were in and set up on the second floor next to cafe, bar and toilets. Then looking around the store, so much and most at 10% or more off rrp.

I picked up a preordained of Perry ACWs, brushes and paint.

Bar opened at 10 as well, so those not driving, sorry Taff, had great cider and boy was it strong at 8.4%. Back to game. Then lunch cooked fresh on the premises, and such great value for money and cracking food it was.

More shopping. Store had brushes, I think every brand of paint possible, flock, trees, accessories, Warlord, gripping beast, victrix, Perry, Wargames Atlantic, Tt Combat, warhammer, star wars, blackpowder, victory as sea, dystopia war, mantic games, Flames of war plus a ton of stuff I have never seen or heard of.

If you can’t get there, order from them on line as they deserve our support because this is what a wargame shops should be, welcoming but not a creche, modern, clean and supporting adults with great parking, food and drink.

At 8.4 % glad we brought a simple game.

A Long Time No See

An old wargaming mate popped over for the first time in 4+years. Following a catch-up over a cup of tea we played a boardgame Hold The Line ACW. The scenario was the Battle of Cross Keys July 8 – 9th 1862.

It was only the 2nd time I had played but Nathan’s first time. I have to admit that while I enjoy boardgames we are both into large tabletop battles.

As we played we chatted about how good the game would look if moved to the table top but what scale? 28mm vignettes for each unit or 6mm regiments.

The game played brilliantly with the Confederates claiming victory on turn 13 of 22 having destroyed 7 Union units.

Early battle before the chatting the stopped me taking photos!

I cannot state how much I like this game. But the reason it is so much better than the very similar Command and Colors version is the command, it is down to you where you spend command points and not down to hopefully having the correct card in your hand as per C&C.

If you love C&C then give this game a go and I am sure you will love it.

I hope that it isn’t 4 years before I see Nathan again.

Update Oct 28

Finished painting and basing another unit for my Scottish Wars of Independence.

These were from Antediluvian Miniatures. I must admit that they were nice to paint but I do worry that the weapons are too flimsy, this is due to them being to scale and not designed for the man handling by wargamers.

Will be starting a 2nd unit soon.

Antediluvian islemen

I made all grass and Heather foliage

Battlelore V1 Battle of Burgos

Earlier this week Taff and I played BattleLore V1.

Battlelore V1.

We got to play the Battle of Burgos  Scenario that introduced Goblins. We also decided to play the game with a War Council but based on a medieval game as detailed within the Scottish Wars add-on.

This basically gives you a level 1 wizard, restricted cards, maximum hand of 1 card and all spells cast as alternative caster costing an additional 3 lore token above its normal cost to cast.

Wow, I am afraid that we go so engrossed that we forgot the photos. The game was concluded in 90 mins with a overwhelming victory to Taff. In my defence I was hampered by Taff defeating my right flank units early in the game and I only had 5 command cards all for the right flank. I had no luck as even when I discarded one , moved no units and drew another, it was for the right flank.

We discussed this afterwards and came up with a house rule.

Instead of playing a command card a player may exchange any number of command cards for new. The cost is 1 lore token for each exchanged card.

 

 

 

Battlelore, Robert the Bruce 2 plus excess Postage!

Following on from my previous blog about Battlelore, I was searching ebay for any suitable reinforcements when I came across some resin figures for sell by Terrainstore.

I have to be honest, apart from fantasy miniatures I have never bought any resin miniatures. While I don’t mind spending a few pounds on a fantasy figure, I am concerned as to whether resin historical figures are worth it?

Will they hold their value if I needed to sell? Do they need to cost as much as people want for them? I have no idea but apart from saving you the carrying weight of a collection. I believe the cost of metal makes up the majority of the cost of a miniature and surely resin is not as expensive as metal. So for me resin have to be cheaper than the best metal equivilent figures.

I spotted terrainstore selling a variety of resin miniatures, napoleonics, Scottish schiltons, fantasy etc. I had spotted Scottish spearmen 2 for sell. Nothing else Scottish related.

I made an offer and it was accepted. 2 days later a set of 4 unique miniatures dropped though my letterbox. I say dropped but given the weight they probably floated to the floor.

All I can say is wow, what figures. Perfect in scale with my collection – mainly Old Glory and Foundry although I have to say the detail on the resin knocks them both for 6.

Not the best photos but hopefully you get the idea

I dropped terrainstore a line and asked if they had any others e.g. Scottish spearmen 1, 3 or command?

Within 30 minutes they replied saying that yes they had more and would put them on ebay and have plans for archers, English spearmen, knights etc.

10 mins later a regimental pack of 8 unique miniatures (4 from spearmen 2 plus 4 more) was for sale on ebay along with separate spear command. I ordered enough to make a couple of Schiltron units, purely due to the quality of the miniatures as I already have enough Schiltron units, but they are just that good.

Over the next week or so they added Edward I, Robert the Bruce both mounted and on foot as well as more foot knights.

I have not ordered any of these as I already have both commanders but I am so tempted. I wrote back and suggested they do some Scottish Galloglass/ Gallowglass as I need a few units of these and scottish archers to complete my army.

Some people have suggested Antediluvian Miniatures for my Gallglass requirements but while the miniatures look great, no idea as to scale comparisons, their postage rates for the UK are ridiculous. So I will either wait to see them at a show or find/wait for an alternative supplier. Come on terrainstore.

I know many of you will say why worry it is just one order, but I hate the feeling of being exploited. While only offering global packaging rates may make it easier for them I don’t see why I should subsidise it. Also if you visit their shop you see this on their home page, correct as of 20th June 2022. Misleading.

Postage rates not great for us in the uk

Anyway I thought about it and clicked on the Historical miniatures banner link. I added 7 packs (28men) totalling £52.50 expecting a total bill of £58.80 with £6.30 being postage.

This was my bill!

Not the 12% postage I expected but 18%

Only when I hit the back button trying to figure out what had happened, taking me back to the historical page,home did I see this alternative postage banner

Ridiculous postage rates for UK customers

So I binned my order.

Battlelore and Robert the Bruce

A couple of weeks ago I played my first game of Battlelore version 1. I have to admit, it was an instant hit for me. Not sure why but probably for two reasons

1. While a fantasy based system it also offers a medieval opportunity. Expansions also covered off the Hundred Years War and the Scottish Wars.

2. The ability to introduce a war council gives this an extra dynamic I had recently encountered playing the original Zvesda version of Samurai Battles Command and Colors. You can accrue Lore point to cast magic or a downscaled version, for the medieval games. This war council can grow if played as a campaign.

The game fired that spark all wargamers have, to play the game with Bigger and more figures. While as a group we agreed the rule set Flower of Chivalry would be our medieval go to set I still wanted to imagine seeing what Battlelore could look like in 28mm.

Out of the cupboard I grapped my Scottish force. The bases were big 125mm x 100mm so a hex mat would need to be 6″ across the flats.

Luckily, Tiny Wargames do battle mats and make one for Command and Colors, ordered it on fleece and 6 days later it arrived and it is superb.

The 6″ hexes make this a big cloth almost 7′ x 4’6″. I also picked up a river from Tiny Wargames

This has fired me up to complete the Scottish Army to align with Battlelore Scottish Wars. More to follow.

Scottish schiltons

A few of my Scottish bases 120 x 100mm

First Bull Run

Having searched a number of online game shops I finally found a copy of Worthington Games’ Hold The Line American Civil War.

I love these style of games and so I took it to Taff’s house for our evening game. We transferred the game to a tabletop miniatures game played on my homemade hex mat.

The first game we played was First Bull Run also known as Battle of First Manassas.

In short Taff whopped my behind. We both agreed it played brilliantly and so much better than Command and Colors version Battlecry.

Doctor Who Campaign Ideas – 1

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Doctor Who Exterminate Campaign.

This campaign is designed for 3 players but can be easily expanded. Each will lead a Dr and his companions. They are trying to protect Earth (nothing new there). They are trying to build a device called a Dalek Jammer, unfortunately the Daleks have transported the 3 main components to planets through the Universes! The locations are randomly generated but we have agreed that 1 component will be found in each of the rings. You could have a more complex campaign where they could be in any planet and any number of components on that planet. The roles and responsibility table shows for example Player 3 rolls for the locations for Player 1, he also umpires any battles for 1 as active player, while player 2 plays the enemy fighting Player 1. The good thing is that neither player 1 or 2 would know if any were the component or its location. We have 6 pieces of terrain (each numbered) per battle (boxes, oil drums etc) that are randomly placed by player 1 and 2 with only the umpire knowing if any are the missing component.

Each play can pick a Doctor from 1960-2020 along with the companions for that era. To win the game, collect the components and return to the Doctor’s original timeline at Earth.

Earth Timelines – A doctor starts in a particular Decade 1960, 70, 80, 90, 2000 or 2010s. This gives up 6 eras i.e. a D6, so every time a Doctor returns to Earth a D6 is rolled to see which era they land in. During the game a Doctor can return to Earth and pick up another companion from whatever era they land in, assuming a Doctor from that era does not already have them. To swap a companion they must first be returned to their correct era, no dropping Susan off in the year 2020! Every time they return to Earth there is also a random battle.

Please see the Universes below. Known planets will have the Enemy from that planet so e.g. Mondas would be Cybermen, Skaro the Daleks while the others have a randomly selected enemy. The number of the ring determines the number of faction cards the enemy may have – 1=3, 2=4 and 3=5.

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  The Solar Systems

Here is a auto generator, just select formulas and then recalculate button to refresh. Each umpire generates and secretly records the locations of components for the Dr they umpire for. Example is shown above.

wp-1630615979109.docxDownload

This is my Doctor and have just ordered them.

Campaign ideas – like buses they all come along at once.

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Last week I finally got together with Taff and Piggy. While we did no wargaming as we got together in a pub for a drink and a bite to eat, it didn’t take long to get around to discussing what’s new in wargaming. Piggy mentioned he had been bought Exterminate for Christmas and that it might be a good game for us.

I looked it up on line and it seemed great so ordered it as well. It arrived in a couple of days and I have to say I like the concept. I must also say that for a commercial game from a major manufacture how poorly laid out the rules and the clarity of them are. In the game a target gets a token on them when shot at and another if hit. These stop you shooting for 1 and shooting and moving if you have 2. Well that’s what it states at the front of the rules yet in the end of turn phase at the back of the rules is states 1 token stops you moving and 2 stops you moving and shooting.

That said I think they will allow the 3 of us, to play a campaign where we all play a Dr battling against the other Dr’s in a race against time. So now I am working on both War of the Roses and Doctor Who campaigns.

More ideas/updates to follow soon.

Waterloo Boardgame

I have always wanted to refight the Battle of Waterloo but have finally accepted that in 28mm it is a pipe dream.

I have a very good boardgame from Columbia Games but I am always on the look out for another. Taff recently mentioned that he had a game called Waterloo Quelle Affaire.

Well, how is it?

The box cover is great, I read the intro on the back and panic set in. It mentions the French army deployed in front of the Allied Army near a small town of Waterloo on the 16th of June 1815. The 16th June !!!!!

I even checked if France were still using the Republic Calendar, nope that finished in 1806. How can a game producer get this simple fact so wrong and how good can the game be if this, the simplest of facts is wrong.

The rules are good but very poorly explained and laid out. This maybe due to English I guess, not being the designers first language. There are a number of videos on you tube from the designer, they are awful as well but there is another fantastic video with a full playthrough https://youtu.be/qZ1ZYu8fUJY which explains much of the confusion caused by the poorly written rules.

So the board and counters are great. There are actually 2 games included, one is the historical set up which sees your troops deployed historically, you have an activation deck which gets topped up, so you never know when you will get to use Ney to command troops or just as you are about to commit Napoleon your enemy plays a tactical card that may cause Napoleon to fall ill for the turn and only command a small part of his available troops. Counters represent divisions, one side has them at full strength the other when they have taken a hit.

All the time the French are having to balance taking the fight to the Allies before the Prussians turn up but the forces are spread out and could benefit from coordinating the attackers but that does take time to achieve.

The other game is about the night before and how you can deploy the troops!

Please persevere with the game, check out the errata and faqs on the Riverhorse website https://riverhorse.eu/downloads-errata-and-faqs/ as it clarifies some of the ambiguous wording and typo errors. Please get past these issues and you have a fantastic and superb value for money game. Crying out to be transferred to the table top with figures. I bought mine for £14.95 but it was originally on sale in The Works for a tenner when I first saw it.

I love the format and this game calls out for more famous battles. I would sign up now for them. I just hope they proof read better and have a better rules layout.