I want to wish you all
A Happy Christmas & A Happy New Year!
I hope Santa brings you all the gaming toys you asked for!
Thursday, 24 December 2015
Tuesday, 22 December 2015
X wing League: Smash N' Grab (Epic Battle)
The X wing League at the Essex Legion drew to a close on the weekend. It was the last meet of the year and in celebration of the new Star Wars film an epic 500pt X wing battle was to be played.
To get you in the mood watch the video first before reading on...
Empire and Rebels are set up either side with the first wave of scum pilots in the middle.
Han in the Falcon was flanked either side by Luke and Biggs with Wedge on the right and two A wings leading on the left and the deadly formation of B wings on the right.
The Empire are flying a fleet with the Emperor himself and Darth Vader..... Dun Dun Dah!!
Rebels start first....
All the Rebel ships move forward at maxim speed with the A wings boosting forward.
The Scum meet the Rebel ships head on and they start to strip away the shields on the Falcon dealing a critical hit.
The Scum are delt some deadly damage to taking hits and suffering losses. Some ships fall to the might of the Tentive and are simply crushed by the sheer mass of the ship.
X Wings move in to try and help out the Falcon. Luke loses his shields while Biggs fly's at his side for support. An A wing is suddenly shot and damaged beyond repair as the Flacon begins to get swarmed by the sheer number of Scum ships. Sadly it just is too much for the Flacon to handle and gets shot out of the sky.
Luke crashes in to slave one and takes out one of the Scum ships. He then K turns to get behind Slave one but does not see Talon Bane who destroys Luke's X Wing.
Tantive starts to fire on the Scum taking some casualties as the Scum try desperately to fire back at the huge rebel ship.
The Empire on the other side of the board are slowly moving forward to meet the Rebels watching with glee as the Rebel fleet is slowly being picked apart when suddenly a second wave of Scum Ships meets them and start to attack the Empire.
The Rebels are nearly half way towards there goal as they start to encounter the other battle between The Scum and The Empire.
The last 2 ships of the first wave of Scum are left fighting the Rebels one trying desperately to hang on to one of the transports while the other dangerously close to the Tantive as the Rebels begin to engage the Empire..
The A wing shoots at the Hounds Tooth with its missiles and gets 4 hits and deals 1 hit to every enemy ship close by.
Not long after in revenge for the earlier attack the A wing is destroyed by the empire as the Reming X wings and B wings start to target the Empires fleet and remaining Scum ships.
The last remaining ships for the Scum drastically start to thin out and leaves the Empire and the Rebels to battle it out.
Just as the Rebels and Empire start to really engage each other in battle unfortunately time had to be called to the game as it was getting late....
It was an epic battle with huge ships and lots of dice rolling to be had. The Rebels managed to get half way up the table with out loosing any transports. Everyone enjoyed the game and it was so awesome to see huge ships on the table.
At the end of the night prizes were awarded to the players of the league. Ed and Macca came joint 1st in the league representing the Empire and the Rebels. Well done guys. Thanks to www.cogotwo.com for the prizes for playing in the league.
Well done to all that took part in the event and thanks to Phil at the Essex Legion for arranging the league and the epic game. It was really fun to get back into X wing and a great way to celebrate the new film.
As it was the last meet up at The Essex Legion for 2015 I have to say thank you to all the guys at club not only for the Christmas food put on this year but also making the long travel down these last couple of months worth it.
You guys are always welcoming and have created a great atmosphere and community spirt. I look forward to what you guys do in 2016.
To get you in the mood watch the video first before reading on...
The mission for the game was to get at least one of the Rebel transports to the other side of the board before they were either blown up or taken captive by the Empire or the on coming Scum ships..
Empire and Rebels are set up either side with the first wave of scum pilots in the middle.
Han in the Falcon was flanked either side by Luke and Biggs with Wedge on the right and two A wings leading on the left and the deadly formation of B wings on the right.
The Empire are flying a fleet with the Emperor himself and Darth Vader..... Dun Dun Dah!!
All the Rebel ships move forward at maxim speed with the A wings boosting forward.
The Scum meet the Rebel ships head on and they start to strip away the shields on the Falcon dealing a critical hit.
The Scum are delt some deadly damage to taking hits and suffering losses. Some ships fall to the might of the Tentive and are simply crushed by the sheer mass of the ship.
X Wings move in to try and help out the Falcon. Luke loses his shields while Biggs fly's at his side for support. An A wing is suddenly shot and damaged beyond repair as the Flacon begins to get swarmed by the sheer number of Scum ships. Sadly it just is too much for the Flacon to handle and gets shot out of the sky.
Luke crashes in to slave one and takes out one of the Scum ships. He then K turns to get behind Slave one but does not see Talon Bane who destroys Luke's X Wing.Tantive starts to fire on the Scum taking some casualties as the Scum try desperately to fire back at the huge rebel ship.
The Empire on the other side of the board are slowly moving forward to meet the Rebels watching with glee as the Rebel fleet is slowly being picked apart when suddenly a second wave of Scum Ships meets them and start to attack the Empire.
The Rebels are nearly half way towards there goal as they start to encounter the other battle between The Scum and The Empire.
The last 2 ships of the first wave of Scum are left fighting the Rebels one trying desperately to hang on to one of the transports while the other dangerously close to the Tantive as the Rebels begin to engage the Empire..
The A wing shoots at the Hounds Tooth with its missiles and gets 4 hits and deals 1 hit to every enemy ship close by.
Not long after in revenge for the earlier attack the A wing is destroyed by the empire as the Reming X wings and B wings start to target the Empires fleet and remaining Scum ships.
The last remaining ships for the Scum drastically start to thin out and leaves the Empire and the Rebels to battle it out.
Just as the Rebels and Empire start to really engage each other in battle unfortunately time had to be called to the game as it was getting late....
It was an epic battle with huge ships and lots of dice rolling to be had. The Rebels managed to get half way up the table with out loosing any transports. Everyone enjoyed the game and it was so awesome to see huge ships on the table.
 |
| Here's Ed with his Favourite ship.... |
At the end of the night prizes were awarded to the players of the league. Ed and Macca came joint 1st in the league representing the Empire and the Rebels. Well done guys. Thanks to www.cogotwo.com for the prizes for playing in the league.
 |
| My prize for 5th place. These should help with my focus... |
Well done to all that took part in the event and thanks to Phil at the Essex Legion for arranging the league and the epic game. It was really fun to get back into X wing and a great way to celebrate the new film.
As it was the last meet up at The Essex Legion for 2015 I have to say thank you to all the guys at club not only for the Christmas food put on this year but also making the long travel down these last couple of months worth it.
You guys are always welcoming and have created a great atmosphere and community spirt. I look forward to what you guys do in 2016.
Friday, 18 December 2015
Welcome To The Deadzone PT2.... Here Comes The Pain
In a box set the models are the main event for me so I was looking forward to begin building theses minis for Deadzone.
I started with the Plague faction. As I started to open the packets of minis I could see that my first inspection regarding the models needing a lot of cleaning came true. The models are made of a hard plastic a lot different from the normal GW materials I am used to.
The usual mold lines were present on them as well as some rough bits of plastic hear and there that needed snipping off.
With out any instructions it took me a little bit of time to figure out which arms fit to what model as some have pre made joints which made it a little easier to work.
I started with the Plague faction. As I started to open the packets of minis I could see that my first inspection regarding the models needing a lot of cleaning came true. The models are made of a hard plastic a lot different from the normal GW materials I am used to.
The usual mold lines were present on them as well as some rough bits of plastic hear and there that needed snipping off.
 |
| I've Got Some Work To Do |
With out any instructions it took me a little bit of time to figure out which arms fit to what model as some have pre made joints which made it a little easier to work.
I would advise using super glue to stick these together as plastic glue did not seem to work.
I also changed the position of the arms on the model below from facing down which made it like a Hulk Hogan muscle pose and now its more of a bezserker rage pose.
Next up were the Enforcers.
Well it was more difficult than I thought getting these made. I have made lots of models before but with out instructions especially in a starter set made this less straight forward then it should be. I think even if Mantic could do a PDF guide this could be a big help. It became a case of trying to fit things a couple of times and then having to referrer to box art and the rule book to try and figure out the correct components for each model.
On one of the models I had to repose jumping over the wall as his arm was to close to his knee.
I used some hot water and reposed the arm and fingers so it was out of the way of the way and managed to change it to a more dynamic pose by pinning the hand to the wall.
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| BOO! |
I also changed the position of the arms on the model below from facing down which made it like a Hulk Hogan muscle pose and now its more of a bezserker rage pose.
 |
| Come At Me Bro! |
 |
| The Gang |
Next up were the Enforcers.
Again these needed the same treatment as the Plague with cleaning of mold lines and random bits of plastic. They seemed to need a lot more of a clean up then the Plague for some reason.
These models took a while to find all the right parts to fit especially the main troops as you had two arms that fitted a gun which need to be the correct length to work. Unlike GW plastics where they tend to stick in place with glue quickly these would not stay in place. They fell off before you could pose them in a shoulder socket and there was no real clue how far apart they needed to be to fit the gun in place.
So I had no choice but had to roll out the green stuff. I had to use this for the arm joints as well as to help attach the body to the hip joints as the plastic did not connect right so glue would not work.
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| Thank You Green Stuff |
The rocket launcher Enforcer was another challenge as I had to attach the arms in a way that left a huge gap. I had to fill under the arm with green stuff.
 |
| Here Come The Boys |
Well it was more difficult than I thought getting these made. I have made lots of models before but with out instructions especially in a starter set made this less straight forward then it should be. I think even if Mantic could do a PDF guide this could be a big help. It became a case of trying to fit things a couple of times and then having to referrer to box art and the rule book to try and figure out the correct components for each model.
 |
| There May Be Trouble Ahead. |
I also just put these on to the bases and found some of them did not slot into the pre made holes which again needed to have some green stuff to help stick them in place.
I don't want it all to sound negative as the models once they are made look good.
The Plague models are what I am looking forward to painting as they do have a lot of character and I'm looking forward to playing a game with them.
It was just little things that could have been done to help make things go a little more smoothly.
So I am off now to start undercoating...
Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Welcome to The DeadZone Pt 1
A few weeks ago it was black friday. The usually emails and adverts flew into my email in box and I browsed through for any good deals.
One email came to my attention was from Mantic games. Mantic's special offer was their board game come skirmish game Deadzone for more then half price off.
I have played the game once at a salute a few years ago and have some of the Mantic terrain already so I decided I would take the plunge.
2 weeks later it arrived.....
Apon opening the box I could see all the lovely shiny toys but the one thing I noticed was the box contents was not packed with any foam or bubble wrap to protect any of the contents.
I found some tokens all ready pooped out and a part of some the terrain already lose from the sprue in the box.
I am more used to a well packed product like the AvP game so I am not to sure why this did not include any protective packing especially when sending it through the post.
The contents includes:
Urban Battlezone
12 Plastic Enforcers Miniatures
2 Enforcer Sentry Guns
11 Plastic Plague Miniatures
The rule book looks good and not to long in length which hopefully will mean it wont take long to learn and get playing.
The models look like they will need a lot of clean up and one thing I am a little worried about is building them as there is no instructions.. So for beginners getting into this board game/skirmish game may be a little put off by this. There are pictures in the rule book and on the box so I will see how I get on later.
The 2X2 gaming mat is nice and heavy duty just like the playmates that are now readily available that use mouse matt material.
One element I am a little disappointed in is the quality of the print on the mat. It looks a little grainy and blurred and some of the colours look green like the printer has run out of ink. It may be the design but its hard to tell due to the print quality.
I am not sure if its a faulty product but if it is I would have thought QC would have checked this but it could be the technology has also advanced since the release of the game.
All in all I am happy with what I received especially at the price I got it for. I have seen lots of videos on game play and terrain builds using the contents of this box.
I can see this is going to be a fun game that can be picked up and played with little fuss and as its only on a 2X2 it wont take up to much table space.
The other factions look interesting ( The Rebs look cool) and as the new update of Deadzone and new terrain coming out soon due to another successful Kickstarter by Mantic this year it could be just the right time to start playing.
Now off to start building the models...
One email came to my attention was from Mantic games. Mantic's special offer was their board game come skirmish game Deadzone for more then half price off.
I have played the game once at a salute a few years ago and have some of the Mantic terrain already so I decided I would take the plunge.
2 weeks later it arrived.....
 |
| The Big Box |
I found some tokens all ready pooped out and a part of some the terrain already lose from the sprue in the box.
I am more used to a well packed product like the AvP game so I am not to sure why this did not include any protective packing especially when sending it through the post.
 |
| Lots In The Box |
1 Full Colour A4 Rulebook
6 Eight sided dice
130+ counters
54 Card Enforcers Faction Deck
54 Card Plague Faction Deck
Urban Battlezone
2’x2’ Durable Urban Gaming Mat
28 Modular Plastic Scenery tiles
20 Piece Plastic Accessory Sprue
48 Piece Connector Sprue
12 Plastic Enforcers Miniatures
1 Enforcer Peacekeeper Captain
4 Enforcers with Heavy Rifle
2 Assault Enforcers
1 Enforcer Engineer
1 Enforcer Sniper
1 Enforcer Missile Launcher
 |
| Lots Of Terrain |
11 x 25mm Round Bases
1 x 40mm Round Base
11 Plastic Plague Miniatures
1 Plague Stage 1A
3 Plague Stage 2A
4 Plague Stage 3A
1 Plague Stage 3A with HMG
2 Plague Stage 3D “Hellhounds
7 x 25mm Round Bases
4 x 40mm Round Bases
Phew........
 |
| Lots Of Minis! |
The 2X2 gaming mat is nice and heavy duty just like the playmates that are now readily available that use mouse matt material.
One element I am a little disappointed in is the quality of the print on the mat. It looks a little grainy and blurred and some of the colours look green like the printer has run out of ink. It may be the design but its hard to tell due to the print quality.
I am not sure if its a faulty product but if it is I would have thought QC would have checked this but it could be the technology has also advanced since the release of the game.
 |
| Did The Ink Run Dry? |
I can see this is going to be a fun game that can be picked up and played with little fuss and as its only on a 2X2 it wont take up to much table space.
The other factions look interesting ( The Rebs look cool) and as the new update of Deadzone and new terrain coming out soon due to another successful Kickstarter by Mantic this year it could be just the right time to start playing.
Now off to start building the models...
Thursday, 10 December 2015
Bark At The Moon
During the last month while riding the bus to get to The Essex Legion or for work. I've been reading The Space Wolf Omnibus. It follows Ragnar Blackmane's rise through the ranks of the Space Wolves. I'm really enjoying it and would recommend any one to have a read if they get a chance.
So with this it inspired me to continuing my raid through all my miniatures and had a little look at my Space Wolves collection.
I have always like the Spaces Wolves as models and thought about making a Space Wolves army for a while now.
I got a box of Space Wolves and a Starter Army set of Space Marines I found cheap a while back and got to work on making some Blood Claws, Grey Hunters, Wolf Lords and some Scouts.
This week I also received a box of more Space Marines from Ebay which included another Rhino/Predator.
First thing was to strip some of these marines so I could make some Long Fangs which would all be using rocket launchers. As I had spare rocket parts from Rhinos etc I decided to magnetise some of them to the shoulder pads of the Space Marines.
I also went about making up 2 Rhinos/ Predators and used some of the spare marine accessories to stick on the Rhinos. I also tried to add some bullet holes to the side and front of one of the Rhinos by drilling out small holes and using a craft knife to add impact marks around the holes.
I also seemed to have collected a few HQ's as well.
I had to get my paint brush out and got to work on Ulrik the Slayer.
I need to get the latest codex so just going by an older codex for reference for now but I want to give the Sons of Russ a run out in the new year.
So with this it inspired me to continuing my raid through all my miniatures and had a little look at my Space Wolves collection.
I have always like the Spaces Wolves as models and thought about making a Space Wolves army for a while now.
I got a box of Space Wolves and a Starter Army set of Space Marines I found cheap a while back and got to work on making some Blood Claws, Grey Hunters, Wolf Lords and some Scouts.
This week I also received a box of more Space Marines from Ebay which included another Rhino/Predator.
First thing was to strip some of these marines so I could make some Long Fangs which would all be using rocket launchers. As I had spare rocket parts from Rhinos etc I decided to magnetise some of them to the shoulder pads of the Space Marines.
I also went about making up 2 Rhinos/ Predators and used some of the spare marine accessories to stick on the Rhinos. I also tried to add some bullet holes to the side and front of one of the Rhinos by drilling out small holes and using a craft knife to add impact marks around the holes.
I also seemed to have collected a few HQ's as well.
I had to get my paint brush out and got to work on Ulrik the Slayer.
I need to get the latest codex so just going by an older codex for reference for now but I want to give the Sons of Russ a run out in the new year.
Wednesday, 2 December 2015
40K For A Change.... Daemon On The Loose.
After my trip to Warhammer World in October I have been itching to paint something 40k related.
After digging through my Chaos collection I discovered my spare Daemon Prince (I love these guys) that was unpainted. Shock horror... Well I do have another two that are already painted so I do have an excuse.
I went for something different rather then my usual Nurgle colours. The model was undercoated green with some silver added to the armour. I then used a purple wash to cover the skin and some of the metal work as well as using some good old black wash.
The colours were chosen so that this could be more of a generic Daemon Prince that could be used in any Chaos war band.
I've also just added some touches to my Heldrake base. I have to get some water effects for this really (used PVA here) but through happy accidents of red paint spillage I had the idea to use my dead Space Marine as a feature.
It always feels good working through you pile of minis that need to be painted. It is also great to be able to switch up what models and colour pallets to keep things interesting.
I am off to see what else I can find.
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