Thursday 31 October 2013

Assault Publishing 15mm Sci-Fi Figures

Marcin Gerkowicz the owner of assault Publishing as well as contributing a set of his new sic-fi rules PMC 2640 as a prize to my charity raffle as also kindly donated some of his range of 15mm figures for us to use in our charity games. The packs in his range are actually made by other manufacturers then re packed to suit his own rule set ,saying that the figures are really nice and can easily be used with any 15mm sic fi rule set such as tomorrows war .

The figures and vehicles are on his web site as APCR range which stands for Assault Publishing Choice repacks , a title that says every thing .I believe the actual ranges are from Odzal Osmy and Rebel mainly but Marcin will add to these as he expands the rules and army lists .

The figures he has kindly donated are packed in sets of 6 and 8 figures labelled as Rifle Infantry ,Light Infantry ,Engineers etc and are a random mix which usually contains a nco/leader figure and 2 or 3 basic troop types then a heavy weapon or 2 .The figures are nice and have crisp detail all of the poses are very good and realistic there are no strange men dancing with rifle poses here , they are white metal and have very thin bases cast on and hopefully I will get some painted over the next few days and they will be taking part in many charity fund raising games . The vehicles Marcin has donated are again very high quality and are a mix of white metal and resin ,you can tell Marcin has put a lot of thought and time into picking what goes in what pack and they are easy way to start a sic fi army .

Below are a few pictures of the figures straight from the bag and a size comparison against a critical mass figure the only other 15mm sic fi I have.




The selection Marcin provided 

Wolverine mk 3

same vehicle built up



The critical mass figure is the larger figure

overall the range is a nice addition to the Sci Fi market allowing you to pick from ranges of figures on one site packed to make ready built units for the game.


Monday 28 October 2013

Raffle Update

A update on this years Raffle ,the tickets are on sale at the Wargames Emporium Orchard Sq Sheffield . Priced at £1.00 for a strip of 5 tickets they are great value and every penny raised goes to the Royal British Legion .Any one wishing to donate without buying a ticket can either leave money at the Emporium care of John or Eric or for donations on line please see the donation link on here. The Draw will take place in the Emporium on Sat 9th November at 1pm .
The prizes are detailed in past posts on this blog with new ones arriving daily its hard to make a complete list for example Brigade Models prize arrived today which is a great starter set for their own space ship game .Some of the many ,many prizes are shown below and as stated on earlier posts.

Brigade Models starter set .

A nice selection of prizes 

Some Blisters from 1st Corps

some of the prizes from Galloping Major,Dashing Dice and Gripping Beast .

Saturday 26 October 2013

RH Models and S&S Models

Russians
 I would like to thank Rolf at RH models (liberation) for joining our growing band of supporter's ,he has kindly donated a bag of 36 1990's russians for Chechnia , and  a set of 9 SAS for Afghanistan .Both Sets are really tremendous figures .
SAS 

2 of the latest from S&S




And again for the third year running Shaun of S&S models has donated some of his great vehicles this year 2 of his latest a jeep and a Lerraine sig33 both are resin and white metal models and not yet on his on line store they are that new .I have a huge selection of his vehicles and will always recommend his models.

Friday 25 October 2013

Royal British Legion

Official Royal British Legion Photograph
The Royal British Legion needs a minimum of £37 Million this year , I am proud to do my small bit to raise funds towards this amount and would like to thank everyone who as donated a huge amount of prizes for my raffle and to all the people buying tickets , every pound does make a big difference.

Thursday 24 October 2013

Assault Publishing

My old friend Marcin Gerkowicz of assault publishing who has been very generous in sponsorship of the Royal British Legion and my own gaming needs in the past ,as very kindly donated a copy of his latest war gaming rule book PMC 2640 .This rule set is again his own work and as usual is a top notch rule set. I will try and give a review soon . Marcin's own description of the rules are below,taken from his web store all the art work is from the rule book .


PMC 2640 logo
PMC 2640 is designed as a ‘true company scale’ wargame, which means that it runs smoothly both with a few as well as a few dozen units on the battlefield. This was achieved by eliminating sophisticated, but unnecessary special rules, and limiting the number of counters to morale markers only, represented by D6 dice. The ruleset itself is compact and elegant, written in simple, “international” English, leaving no place for vagueness and multiple interpretations. On the other hand, PMC 2640 offers countless possibilities, as the rulebook contains a few dozen of unit entries, six scenarios and seven terrain generators, all of which ensure that no two games will look the same. The classic alternate activation (with small balancing modifications) makes the game fast and addictive.
The unit/team is the basic element of the game and all parameters are given for the whole team, with the number of soldiers modifying just a few parameters (Firepower, Assault and Morale, to be precise). We do not worry about equipment of individual soldiers. Rifle team is a rifle team, whether they use assault rifles, lasers, neutron blasters or any other similar weapon. There are only two requirements: they units have to be Recognizable and Cool-Looking! This allows you to prepare and field the coolest teams you can, with sarges, medics, war correspondents or whoever else you wish, as long as there is no doubt what unit the miniatures represent.
The available units are diverse and work best when properly teamed. For example, assault troops charging through an open field will probably get bogged down, decimated and finally forced to retreat. But support them with heavy weapons teams who will pin down the defenders, and the attack will be much more effective!
PMC 2640 does not feature a typical point value system. Instead, all units are grouped into Tiers which correspond to their level of training, experience and equipment. What is more, the battles have their own Battle Tiers, which specify the sum of all Unit Tiers and limit the number of units of specific Tiers. Low Tier battles are clashes of unreliable greenhorns, while high Tier battles feature lots of specialised, deadly troops.
Another feature of PMC 2640 is a smart, but simple morale system. Morale is not a 0-1 value (didn’t pass – passed) like in the most games, but instead troops under fire get suppression points. When the number of these points becomes high enough, the unit gets suppressed and later broken. To make things more interesting, every lost soldier means a reduction of the Morale parameter, so like in real life, the units with half of the soldiers down usually have little combat value. But even troops which haven’t suffered any losses can sometimes be forced to retreat – though killing a few enemies always helps!
PMC 2640 focuses on tactics and proper use of even the slightest advantages the commanders have at their disposal. Terrain pieces are not just decorative dioramas, but play a very important role. They may hide your troops from enemy line of sight, provide them with a defence bonus and/or boost their firepower – definitely something to take into account. Additionally, some of the terrain pieces can be demolished, and buildings or barricades may become deadly traps!
Perhaps the most interesting component of PMC 2640 is its campaign system, which resembles those featured in skirmish games. Instead of a chain of several more or less playable scenarios, the players develop their PMCs by playing standard battles. The commanders gain funds to recruit new troops and develop their companies, while the units get experience, upgrades and trauma, all of which affect their performance in later games.
And if you want to try something different than typical competitive battles, PMC 2640 allows for solitaire and cooperative games! These are described in a separate chapter with additional rules, six dedicated scenarios and new special units (insurgents and space bugs). Solitaire/cooperative games might not be perfectly balanced (which is probably impossible), but are intended to be as cool and fun as possible. Whether you wish to crush a rebellion of disappointed miners or evacuate civilians attacked by oversized bugs, you will find these games challenging and unusual compared standard battles.
The PMC 2640 rulebook is the first product of Assault Publishing to include an original background story. It contains a brief history of the future from 22nd to 27th century, a description of the rise and fall of the corporations, the genesis of PMCs, and many other events which allow you to get immersed in the world of the year 2640. But do not expect another “Oh-My-God-Evil-Aliens-Are-Murdering-Us!” setting – instead, you will find a hard science fiction universe, inspired more by Blade Runner than Star Wars, where mercenary commanders fight for powerful corporations, corrupted states or colonial authorities – depending on who provides the highest salary! To further help you feel the mood of the 27th century, the rulebook is illustrated by Ɓukasz Marko (Markotny Drawing Studio) whose independent, rough style perfectly portrays the grim nature of future battlefields.
PMC 2640 is designed for scales between 15mm an 28mm, with 15mm as the default one. However, there is a possibility of using smaller scales (like 6mm, 10mm) using minor modifications included at the end of the book.
You may purchase the game in Assault Publishing online store.
Usefull sheets can be found in Assault Publishing free download section.

Wednesday 23 October 2013

Sheffield War Games Society

Had a good night at SWGS the members bought a nice amount of tickets for the raffle and made me feel as though I had never been away ,hopefully after November I might actually be able to get down on a regular basis again .If you live in or near Sheffield its the club to attend ,nice friendly people a great mix of games and of course they are the team behind Triples .
Thanks to all SWGS members for a nice time.

Tuesday 22 October 2013

another great prize for the raffle

Piers Brand who is responsible for some of the great paint jobs in the Battle Group and Force on Force rule books amongst others has offered to paint one 15mm or 20mm vehicle free of charge ,just send him one of your models and he will work his magic on it for free and pop it back in the post to you .
(you supply the model &P&P to him ,he paints it free and pays return P&P to you )

The old Bookshelf of cambeltown

The prizes Kindly donated by the Old Bookshelf have arrived today ,in the form of 2 excellent books "We fought at Arnhem "  the story of 3 soldiers who fought at Arnhem and "Bomber flight Berlin" the story of the crew of C Charlie a Lancaster Bomber,both books by Mike Rossiter.


Sunday 20 October 2013

Raffle Sponsors


The 2013 Raffle on behalf of
The Royal British Legion
                To be drawn at the War Games Emporium on the 09/11/2013

Prizes Donated by:
1st Corps
Ambush Alley Games
Assault Publishing
Battle Flag
Brigade Models Dashing Dice games
Dave Parsons Figure Painting Service
Elhiem Figures
Galloping Major
Gripping Beast
Northstar Miniatures
Paella World
Plastic soldier Company
RH Models
Rogue Miniatures
Sally 4th
Sheffield Wargames Society
S&S models
Studio Miniatures
The Old Book Shelf  of Scotland
Tim Gow of the St James Place Partnership
Underfire miniatures
War Games Emporium
Warlord Games

Tickets on Sale at the Wargames Emporium Orchard Square Sheffield
Full Details at: http://wargamesandwalking.blogspot.co.uk

Saturday 19 October 2013

Galloping Major and other raffle updates .

Lance at Galloping Majors has sent me his contribution to this years Raffle ,two packs of his fantastic FIW range figures.
Provincials under attackBPT5

Canadian MilitiaFCM 4


Also the OLD BOOKSHELF from Scotland have also joined our little band of sponsors . I am going to get the full list of sponsors and prizes updated over this weekend hopefully and as well as the tickets being on sale in the Wargames Emporium Sheffield ,I will be trying to get around the local war games clubs over the next 2 weeks.

Wednesday 16 October 2013

Roundway Down

On our recent holiday we visited the battlefield of Roundway Down ,which as you drive through Devizes you would imagine it is easy to find as every other street and retail park are named after people involved in the battle or war ,however it is very hard to find. There are no brown signs or any mention what so ever ,the local website gives a description of the battle but no directions and the local government site only includes a blank page ,when you drive into Round way village again no signs but you will see an unnamed  lane with a dead end sign drive straight down that until you come to a Y junction go left and you come to some parking spaces go past these along a very bad road and you arrive at a car park . The 1 st of two information boards is a walk away from the car park but is visible from the car park and the wrongly named Olivers castle is a short walk away . Information about the battle is easily obtained so I will just post some relevant photographs .

The 1st information Board

one of the escape routes

2nd Info Board at Olivers Castle



The view of the Bloody Ditch where many men and Horses perished as they crashed down from Olivers Castle.

Elhiem

Elhiem Miniatures have continued their support for our cause by giving a prize again this year ,the lucky winner will get £20.00 to spend on any of the many fantastic Elhiem figure ranges , they produce official figures for all the Ambush Alley rules and supplements with new figures arriving almost daily the ranges will of course fit in with any rule systems .

Other news on the raffle front is that Brigade Models have confirmed their prize donation is a starter pack for their squadron commander game.

Tuesday 15 October 2013

Raffle update -Sally 4th ,Galloping Major & Warlord Games

Some more prizes have arrived over last couple of days ,from Sally4th and Warlord Games ,some of which are shown below ;
Sally 4th's 10mm castle

close up of some of the detail


Part of the Warlord donation rule book &ltd edition figure



Also great news that Lance of Galloping Major has again helped us out with some of his amazing figures.

Below a full list of Sponsors for this years raffle:
1st Corps
Ambush Alley Games
Battle Flag
Brigade Games
Dashing Dice games
Dave Parsons Figure Painting Service
Elhiem Figures
Galloping Major
Gripping Beast
Northstar Miniatures
Paella World
Plastic soldier Company
Rogue Miniatures
Sally 4th
Sheffield Wargames Society
S&S models
Studio Miniatures
Tim Gow of the St James Place Partnership
Underfire miniatures
War Games Emporium
Warlord Games

with at least 2 more to confirm we hopefully will raise a great amount for the RBL.

Army Air Corps & the Museum of Army Flying

Just back from a few days away on a walking Holiday ,we were based near Andover and we spent a great day at the Museum of Army Flying at middle wallop which is right next door to the Army Air Corps Base . The museum is fantastic so much crammed in ,covering every thing from the Royal Flying Corps ,R.A.F Middle Wallop during the Battle of Britain up through the Cold War and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan .There are some amazing aircraft on display ,lots of documents and weapons ,uniforms etc but i found the displays involving models really good ,using different scales in the same case made a3-D effect ,some used life size models in the fore ground and went down to 1/72 scale in the back of the display. The museum also has a fantastic cafe which other than offering  very good food at normal prices(i.e not the usual museum inflated prices ) ,overlooks the Army Air Corps landing strips so we were treated to a free Air Display by many helicopters including Apaches and the not yet in service Westland Wildcat .A great day out for £9.00 (you can view the out door displays and enter the cafe for free) .

This and the next 2 pics are part of the outdoor display



A Chinese terrorist in Malaya ,note the search aircraft flying over in the background

Elaine flying a Scout 

Lots of hands on stuff for the kids of all ages 
Me showing how spacious the Scout was 
Cobra


Depiction of the RAF Middle Wallop mess during theB.o.B

Rotary Car

The new wildcat 



Apache

Chinook

Wednesday 9 October 2013

More Raffle Prizes from Dashing Dice Games and 1st corps

Eric of Dashing Dice Games the publishers of WitchFinder General Rules as kindly donated the following as prizes


1 Witchfinder General Rulebook

The two new figures- 'Mitchell & Megan'

1 box of Warlord Games ECW Infantry

1 box of Warlord Games ECW Cavalry

2 Heresy Miniatures Hellhounds

1 Heresy Miniatures Werewolf

1 Heresy Miniatures Vampire

1 Heresy Witch


1st corps have donated 8 Blister packs of 28mm figures including 4 of their new WW2 British Para's , which are lovely figures full of character .

I will post full descriptions and more  photos soon.


Para Command Picture by 1st corps



Tuesday 8 October 2013

Royal British Legion Raffle

Only another quick update hopefully will get more time tomorrow ,just to show the prizes put up by Tim Gow of St James Place .



and a reminder tickets are on sale now from the Wargames Emporium Sheffield.

Sunday 6 October 2013

Raffle update and the first lot of prizes


This update is a little rushed ,just not had time to catch up with stuff , First thing is that Dave Parsons the in house painter at WarGames Emporium has again donated a voucher for his services .

The prizes I have already received Are :







Paella World 
Our first ever non wargaming prizes come in the form of Paella pans ,the genuine articles from Valencia .Just in case you are not sure what they are the picture above will show you one of them held by my youngest . ~Three of these great pans are up for grabs ,ideal for cooking those chillies ,curries ,fry ups or paellas .

Gripping Beast 
Again the lads at Gripping Beast have graced us with gifts plundered on their raids into the gaming world .This year they have sent us.
Saga Rule book
William the bastard blister pack
Pagan Rus warband box set
Harold ,Gryth and Leofwine Blister 

Rogue Miniatures 
Again a nice selection from Rogue miniatures expanding catalogue 
1 each of
Tommy
Fritz
Agent Ready
Mirth & Dirth set
Heed
Averice

The Plastic Soldier Company
The fist year for PSC to donate and they have sent us some nice goodiesfrom their ww2 ranges
a box of 57 US Infantry  20mm figures
a box of 3 20mm Stugs
a box of 5 Stuart tanks in 15mm
a box of 5 Sdkfz 251/c in 15mm

Dave Parsons Painting
£20.00 voucher

Studio Miniatures :
A great prize ,from their upcoming new range of figures that are not even in production yet 
A battalion pack of Sikh infantry and flags in 28mm
A battalion pack of 28mm British infantry again with flags 

Eric at Dashing dice games as let me know that his donations are in the post ,the prizes he has donated were amazing but he has added some thing else now as well ,keep watching .

I have also had word from Peggy at AAG about what is heading over from them and I have also had 2 new sponsors get in touch and will hopefully update more over the next couple of days.

Thursday 3 October 2013

All of the following have pledged support so far this year for the Royal British Legion raffle :

1st Corps
Ambush Alley Games
Battle Flag
Brigade Games
Dashing Dice games
Gripping Beast
Northstar Miniatures
Paella World
Plastic soldier Company
Rogue Miniatures
Sally 4th
Sheffield Wargames Society
S&S models
Studio Miniatures
Tim Gow of the St James Place Partnership
Underfire miniatures
War Games Emporium
Warlord Games

Hopefully more to follow ,the prizes have started arriving so I will start listing what we have so far over the weekend. If any trader or well stocked gamer would like to donate prizes or services please get in touch. Thank You


Busy Day

Hi been busy today so not much time to sort things out ,I have been organising a get together for next year for the wings of glory aerodrome if any one plays Wings of glory you must join the aerodrome its a fantastic forum and a great source of info and freebies for the game , so not had a chance to take pics of the Raffle prizes so maybe tomorrow ,but another box arrived today full of goodies and Brigade models have  contacted me to say they would like to donate prizes so a big thanks to them. Also the wargames emporium have now got some raffle tickets so you can purchase them a day early ,remember very penny goes to the British Legion .

Wednesday 2 October 2013

raffle update , details and another sponsor

Been trying to finalise some things today , so here goes The tickets will go on sale this Saturday 5th October from the War games Emporium Sheffield ,unfortunately due to circumstances beyond our control we cannot sell the tickets on line , I will be dropping in at local clubs to sell them as well if invited to do so . The price will  be £1.00 for a strip of 5 tickets .The draw will be on the 9th November in the Wargames Emporium in orchard Square sheffield Time to be confirmed .
The prizes are already arriving ,in fact one has just been delivered as I write so over the next few days I will post prize details and pics of what I already have ,even though some of the sponsors have told me what they are sending I do not put it up until I have them in my hands just in case but so far I have almost £200.00 worth of goodies with a lot more on the way.

Another new sponsor  STUDIO MINIATURES have contacted me today to say they are providing some nice new figures from a new upcoming range .

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Raffle Update ....updated again

A great response so far with the following pledging items for the raffle :

From previous years :

Ambush Alley Games
Battle Flag
1st Corps
Gripping beast
Northstar Miniatures
Rogue Miniatures
S&S models
Sheffield War Games Society
Warlord Games

New for this year Prize support from:

Dashing Dice Games
Plastic Soldier Company
Sally 4th
Tim Gow of the St.James's Place Partnership




More info as soon as possible .

And for the first time ,to keep your good ladies happy or even for those war gamers that have leanings towards being the next Jamie Oliver ,non wargaming prizes from :

Paella World .

Paella world is a family run business who specialise in importing authentic Spanish Paella pans directly from Valencia. These can be used to cook a range of dishes from curries to Chillies to full English Breakfasts ,Dominic and Howard have strong links with the armed forces and are proud to help with this fund raiser and have donated 3 pans from their extensive range ,each pan as a retail value of £18.00 for more info visit the link shown in the side panel .