Wednesday 27 December 2017

Dr Who Exterminate -review





Each Christmas my partner Elaine always surprises me with a new game or army ,this year she has bought me the Warlord Games /BBC Dr Who game and a few add on boxes as well. I have always collectd the various un licensed Dr Who figures the best coming from crooked dice games and Heresey miniatures in my opinion .Earlier this year Warlord game purchsed the license for a miniatures game and most of the unlicensed stuff dispered under threat of legal action I guess as the license must have cost fortune, also Warlord have gone to 32mm size so you cant mix in the other ranges.

So the game itself ,comes in a sturdy colourful box with all the tokens ,dice etc plus a paper 3ft x 3ft double sided play mat and 24 plastic figures ,12 Daleks and 12 cyber men ,the first down side is no major characters ,yes no Doctors. The plastic figures though are nice and do snap together and come off the sprues very easily . Three books are included ,the basic rules covering the 2 starter sides , the guide to the time vortex which has guides tocreating factions plus a number of scenarios ,finally the adventures bookwhich brings into play the Doctor his companions and allies. This is a card driven game so coomes with adventure cards ,recruitment (stat) cards and combat cards ,there are also cards for races that are not included with the bsic game (see below)
all the goodies i received

the sprues in the main game

I also rrcieved 2 large expansion sets , Davros and the Daleks and Missy and the cybermen .Basically in each box you get the relevent sprues repeated from the main game plus Missy or Davros depending on the set plus some more faction cards .The Missy and Davros are white metal and are quite nice .


Now for the Doctors I recieved 2 5 figure box sets ,one for the 10th Doctor and 4 of his companions ,Rose ,Wilfred ,Donna and Martha . Then a similier set for the 12th Doctor ,Capladis pose is a bit strange apparently based on a poster the companions are clara , Madam Vastra ,Jenny & strax. The quality of these metal miniatures is bit hit and miss and lots of flash which I don't think is acceptable these days .Next were 2 more boxes of Dr Who's this time in resin and the quality is great first set includes the 1st 4th and repeat of the 10th (different pose) the 2nd box includes the 5th ,11th and 12th Drs ( aggain adifferent much better pose) .There was also aresin K-9 .No cards come with these ,some are in the main box others are down loadable from the warlord site. Another gripe is the fact that the metal figures come on a rather nice mtal base with the name of the character on it ,the plastic and resin come with flatplastic bases so tghe metals are slightly taller. The packagingof these sets is very nice and includes auseful blue box for the figures to stay in.




The interior packing case 

Some of the excess flash can be seen on the 12th Doc





The last 2 packs were sets of 3 of each of Zygons and Judoon , overall everything looks ok quite different standard between sets .I will post more after my first game and after painting some of these.




Thursday 14 December 2017

Sheffield Wargames Society

Managed to get out last night and had a game of the Battle of Britain board game ,real fun ,this time I played the luftwaffe made the same mistakes as John did last time and was blown out of the sky .A few weeks ago ,the club had its AGM where all the committee were re-elected with out challenge a sign I think that the club is now settled and happy after a very bad period in our history .There was great turn out for the AGM with a little arguing and some very strange requests and a few heated debates but that shows people want to take part , and it all ended very friendly .we have getting on 50 members now and a good weekly turn out ,at one point last night there was 28 people involved in 9 games ,not bad so close to christmas in bad weather as well .We meet at Woodseats Working Mens club , the Dale S8 0PS we meet every wednesday and also put on some full day games the next one is the 27th Dec starting at 12 noon ,pop in and see why we are back at the top again .
The Luftwaffe come to a sticky end over England -Tally Ho Bandits and all that

come and join us 

Saturday 2 December 2017

York Army Museum

I have not done much gaming or painting over the last few weeks due to the loss of my Brother and now an awful eye infection ,however did get chance to visit this lovely little museum in York , Dedicated to the Royal dragoon Guards and the Yorkshire Regiment its a well laid out and informative place to visit ,highly reccomended.








Wednesday 8 November 2017

Battle of Britain board game -first game

If you have read my earlier posts about the disgusting kickstarter run by plasticsoldier company you will not be surprised that things have got worse ,the non exsitant quality control used on this game continues as anumber of errors in the rule book have now surfaced and to show utter contempt for their backers PSC have now released the game at retail cheaper than backers paid for it with all the "exclusive kickstarter only items" thrown in for free ?.

Having eventually recieved the game I ran it out at Sheffield Wargames Society last night and it is very good ,nice easy game play ,fun but with a lot of tension we played 2 player and got to a finish in 3 hours , a definate 10 out of 10 for game play .Im not sure it will last many outings the quality of some of the card items is doubtful .The game recieved a lot of comments and interest from SWGS members with lots of interest in the game but disgust at the quality of the plastic aircraft ,such a shame really this could have been a fantastic product .Playing again next week now we have the rules under our belt so a more in depth game report to follow.
the shape of things to come -the dice were not kind to the RAF

John rejoices in the Luftwaffe victory 

Saturday 4 November 2017

Cheap Acrylic Paints

Called in at the Range today and always on the look out for cheap supplies saw a range of Acrylic paint so bought four and just tried them they are very good ,I have used them on top of Vallejo and then used a army painter ink wash on top with no issues , not a massive range but at £1.25 for a 59ml bottle ( the vallejo size bottle is 17ml ) you make quite a saving on your basic colours .well worth a look

Wednesday 1 November 2017

AVP

Another game of AVP ,really great fun with the tension high till thelast turn ,brilliant fun but tactical and easy to pick up great club game .




ooops 

Sunday 29 October 2017

Fiasco Leeds - wargames shows getting worse ?

It is my mates birthday so thought we would go to Fiasco in Leeds ,never been to Fiasco since it moved to this venue and had a wallet full of money and wanted to pick up some bits and pieces plus get some of those dreaded impulse buys .Arrived 15 minutes before doors opened and their seemed to be a disagreement about if the crowd ( about 10 of us ) should be allowed in early or not , well we were .The first stall we came to sold buns? then we hit the wargames stuff I picked up a pre order from Underfire Minis to finish my 20mm IDF then moved along to Crooked Dice and picked up my order and had a great chat about upcoming releases ,then went to the Warlord stand to pick up some bits that John wanted and then browsed the other stand and shortly afterwards ended up back at the entrance with pockets full of money and feeling we had missed a room ,after a long look at the map we walked around again desperate to find something to buy and realised it was not just my poor eyesight but the room was very dark , and  trader  after trader joked about not bringing a torch ?. I suppose im lucky that in Sheffield we have a great wargames store that stocks about 80% of what I want but usually I always come away from shows with stuff i bought on impulse but the last few Ive been too Ive not indulged as much ,I think the issue here was at least 50% of the stalls sold the same stuff , mostly warlord games items .aybe we were being unfair but we agreed we wont be coming back to this show after petrol ,expensive parking and the entrance fee it would have been cheaper to order over the internet . Longing for the old days of stalls all sellng their own stuff and being crushed trying to grab that last copy of rule set maybe I dont know but other than the chat with Karl at crooked we didn't enjoy this expereince .

Tuesday 24 October 2017

Battle of Britain Board Game Kickstarter ---the ongoing saga

As mentioned in an earlier post regarding kick starters I was ann
oyed about ongoing poor service and communication regarding the plastic soldier companies battle of britaion game . I backed this last year and also paid for some add ons for the updated game including plastic aircraft rather than the old style counters ,the game was due to be delivered in Febuary 2017 . Everything looked great it was fully funded in 5 hours and the target of £1,000 was passed and waas only afew pounds short of £91,000 ,it sort of went down hill from here .In Feb this year we recieved a up date saying it would take alittle longer ,no issues with this it happens ,in march we had a update saying its getting there ?. May brought a nearly there message and the promise of a complete plane decal as sorry for delay offering ,I was not too impressed as 1 decal for 20 +models meant having to buy more to match them up ,later in may we got the offer to purchase more extras for the game that was alread late ,I declined .June another nearly done message ,then another saying late August delivery .August yippee its ready to ship ,then anotther message headed GRRRR DELAYS ,it appears every one in the world is against this being shipped on time ???. September brings we need to repackage before it can be shipped . Late September its again ready to ship..October and some issues ,the all over decal that was free for us being messed about was not available so tough luck really and the croupier sticks that were included in the game were not coming either but these would be replaced with a 1/144 scale model sent at random ? no idea why as the other models in the set are 1/300th ,I guess there was apile of unselling zvesda 1/144th kit stuck in the back of the warehouse .October 16th after the first boxes were being delivered we had a sorry the plastic planes are crap and all deformed but stick em in boiling water and then bend them it will all be ok ,oh and the decals we paid extra for are rubbish as well ? the next day after a few disgruntled comments on kick starter a message appeared saying that "they were going to bite the bullit and have more aircraft made for us and we could keep the crap ones at no charge .So the quality aircraft we were promised and paid for (including the extra ones) were being made to the standard promised and would be sent to us as soon as produced which would be roughly March 2018 over ayear late . As you can tell im not happy , I appear to be alone in this as people are posting on face book how nice it is for them to admit they got it wrong and were sending us extra planes , personally I think if the original claims did not mention quality this would be ok and if delays had not been blamed on checks etc it would all sit right with me ,maybe Im just an old grump expecting too much for my hard earned cash but not having what I Paid for until next march (or later ) is really pi****g me off . 
The box is nice ,colourful and sturdy

Nice looking rule book

well laid out and clear to read

the counters are nice and colourful but the display boards are very thin card 

very nice board

cards look good but the dice seem slightly mis shaped and do not roll right

deformed cheap looking aircraft

more of the same

really awful obviuosly no quality control involved here 

the decals are really weird they are raised up and blobby like cheap sticker 

Sunday 22 October 2017

Sheffield Wargames Society Bring and Buy

Sheffield Wargames Society is holding a bring and buy day as part of it's meeting on Wednesday 25th October 2017 from 7.00pm at Woodseats Working Men’s Club, The Dale, Sheffield, S8 0PS.
 
Visitors from other groups in the area would be most welcome.
 
For those who want to sell six foot tables are available for £5 (SWS members pay £1 but are asked to contribute an additional 10% of their takings).
 
Goods should be labelled clearly with details of price and vendor. Sellers may either man their table or rely on the honesty of purchasers.
 
GOODS ARE LEFT AT THE OWNER'S RISK, AND NEITHER SHEFFIELD WARGAMES SOCIETY OR WOODSEATS WMC ACCEPT ANY RESPONSIBILITY WHATSOEVER FOR ANY LOSSES OR DAMAGE SUFFERED.

Wednesday 18 October 2017

Alien v Predator

My first night at sheffield wargames society for 3 weeks and played Johns Alien v Predator game , really quick fun game ,card driven which keeps the tension high ,enjoyed it and will play again .



Saturday 7 October 2017

When Bond ,met Blofeld & nik nak backed up by some Aussies with a frog while being watched by Harley ,joker and the cosplay gang ....

Ok I wasnt sure what to put in the title "my latest painting "sounded dull , Ive been off work ill so picked up my brushes and got to work a mixed bag of stuff and finished a healthy amount ,some Australian infantry with a matilda frog and Bull Allen ,a heroic Australian who saved the lives of many of his comrades , all for Bolt Action .James Bond and some villains for 7TV and the Jared Leto joker ,Harley and the cosplay gang from the suicide squad movie for Batman Miniature game. ,not a bad haul for a couple of days work plus a few in variuos stages of completion which I may finish before I go back to work on Monday .
My Australians advance through the jungle 

Bull Allan carrys wounded comrade

A frog to back up my infantry ..toastie 

assorted villains gang up on Mr Bond 

The slightly crazy lovers

the cosplay boys (girls?) Eyeball man,the Grin twins,Pandaman and Goatshead priest

and a family shot