Fantasy Skies, fantasy ariel combat Table top game

So last night Madan from the Ilford gaming club introduced us to "Fantasy skies", a game he has personally designed and developed.

Madan proceeds to roll out a gaming mat showing an ariel view of some country side, some clouds (which provide cover, and a myriad of gorgous (and mostly converted) ariel warships for us to pilot.

An axis of Evil quickly forms of Russel, Raven, and Frank. While the forces of goodness (?) are captained by Ed, George and I.

We each get a ship from a different faction and I end up with an Empire Warship. Come on!

Ed (Elves) (left), Me (Empire) (centre) and George (undead) (right), head towards the axis of Evil

We all start by heading towards the centre of the table desperately trying to judge the wind (which effects your speed) and bring our guns into range.

Russel (Orcs) charges forward and opens up on the Elves with his forward batteries. WAARGHH!!!!

Fires on an Airship. That can't be good.

Russel has the advantage of the wind and races ahead of his allies. George and I try to manoeuvre our ships to take best advantage of the wind direction and assist Ed before he becomes a flying Bar - B - Que.

"Quick turn to Port" says George, "This is no time for a drink" says I.

Thankfully Frank and Raven are flying into the wind and are reduced to quarter speed. Can we whallop Russel before the rest turn up?

I finally start to get my head round the whole wind thing and manage to get my Airship up to full speed, bring my guns into range and blast away at the Orcs. George opens up with his trebuchets to add to the carnage

Russel wisely dives into the cloud for extra cover as the rest of the axis of evil turn up to join the party.

Russel takes MORE damage and fires burn rampant all over his ship. He loses several repair crews to the fires and we figure he will be going down with his ship soon.

fires on a wooden ship, that can't be good!

The other Orc ship charges in to help, and promptly takes a series of broad sides.

George brings his undead into range and opens fire on Raven. A roll of 100, causes all sorts of carnage on board his ship and so the fires begin.

Ed's Elves are forced to retire, Russel's Orcs are busy accelerating towards the ground at 240mph, I have one point of Hull left before my ship falls to pieces, frank's Orcs are a die roll away from following Russels Orcs over board and Ravens ship has at least 6 fires on board (at least it must be nice and warm!).

With only George mostly unscathed the Axis of evil conceed and a good time was had by all.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the experience, and the game mechanics were really easy to get to grips with (we were all mostly up to speed by the 3rd turn), and never got in the way of causing carnage. 

It turns out Madan is a play tester for Warlord Hail Ceasar & Mantic Kings of War and this gaming experience certainly showed.

Got to be honest, looking forward to the next game!

Power tools and 28mm hobbying. How it should be!

Today I am a man!

Power tools............... Check

Metal Ruler............... Check

Hammer.................... Check

Blood Bowl pitch...... Eh Check?

So I've had this crazy idea bubbling about, pretty much since Christmas. 

If I have two Blood Bowl teams (I do now), I REALLY need a stadium for them to play in. Don't I?

The answer is YES!

So I have a bit of down time at work as the year 11's have left and we are in the process of moving schools so all the old tut is up for grabs, including all the wood etc in the CDT dept.

A quick word with James who runs the dept and a couple of funny looks on his behalf  "James I want to build a 28mm scale stadium so a team of Orcs and Humans can play a game of Bloodbowl on a 6 foot gaming board! Whats so hard to understand!" and we are golden. 

Time to break out the power tools and the PVA glue.

I have played around with a couple of ideas and like the look of this

The idea is, its a shared stadium between the Orcs and humans.

The Orc side will retain most of the original features of the original Bloodbowl Stadium which has stood there for millennia.

The other half will be the Human half and has been built on and updated up to the Victorian age.

The hope is I can magnetise most of the terrain bits and be able to use them for other battles. It will certainly make things cheaper.

Anyway back to the build.............

The original idea was to have the whole thing fold away and place the terrain bits in the middle for transportation. It was soon more then evident that I did not have the 

1) skills, 

2) patience, or 

3) time frame (the whole room gets cleared out in 3 weeks!), to pull this off.

Plan B then, Build the Stadium onto the base board and then construct a lid with handles to go over the top.

Job done!

OHHHH....Tools! and a brass and wood scrappy thing

So all the bits were cut to size using one of these.........

yes its a Bandsaw. Man points mounting!

Which I then had to use this.......

electric sander....... more man points!

to sand down the bits and get them square.

You know the old adage. Measure 3 times and cut once. In goes the board again and it's looking good.

Next job, construct the lid. The idea is to use toggle latches to clip the whole thing together for transport and use KR foam trays or simular to place the terrain bits inside as well.

Also got to make extensive use of this. Safety goggles were compulsery.

Blow me. It actually fits!!!!!

Not bad for a days work! Just need to get hold of some toggle latches and handles and then the case is finished. Of course then there is the fact I have to build the whole stadium.

How hard can it be!

Rank filler. There I said it. Does that make me a bad person?

Ok so I have tried to be a good person, I really have!

I have been slogging through a unit of 20 empire spearmen but was seriously losing the will to live (well at least paint).

I figured I would just plow through them first (bit like brussel sprouts in a roast dinner), before getting to the good bits, i.e. unit champion, drummer etc (bit like the roast spuds in a roast dinner). BUT the truth is they are just an absolute PIG to paint!!!!!!

I can't complain, I bought the unit of 20 spear men (with command group), 16 hand gunners and a cannon with crew from Russel at the MEGC for £15 !!! Absolute bargain I agree but I am really paying for it in regards to tedium and hard work.

So anyway I sounded out Lee and a few of the other generals of the "four gamers" on Friday and the general consensus was, as long as no one takes the piss unit fillers are ok. Sound like a green light to me!

My son had me up at 6am this morning !!!!!! So of course my first thought was "good I can get a good early start on my rank filler!".

Here is the finished result

Its certainly restored my sanity as I was originally looking at plowing through this lot

Thankfully the command group are really nice looking figures and I will put a lot more effort into painting them and the war priest. I figure I will make a really nice looking first rank and the spears have been painted to a sufficent level.

Truth be told I do not see them lasting much further then the 2nd turn as they will be hit with a doom rocket, or arrow of destruction or a mortar, template spell etc and will probably take longer to set up then they will last on the battle field.

Any way back to the rank / unit filler............

Spears fight in 3 ranks if they are charged so I figured a row of spikes with a chain running between them was fully in keeping with the feel of the unit as the filler is essentially another rank of spears.

I have always been fasinated with the battle of Agincourt and remember reading about the Longbow men cutting 6 foot spikes the night before the battle. During the battle they had to pull the spears out again when the French knights refused to charge and marched closer to the Knights as a challenge before banging the spikes back into the ground again. So it is in keeping with the unit as I do not envisinge them moving around too much just holding the centre or refusing a flank.

The really good news is the filler cost peanuts. the card base was 30p, a pack of 100 spiked dale rods cost £1.20, and a length of small link chain cost £1.50 from a local craft shop.

15 minutes with some sissors and super glue and it was ready to paint.

In theory I could make one for 15 units, but I think that might be taking things too far!

Although truth be told I have already been thinking about some for my Hand gunner detatchments as they are just as painful to paint!

Does that make me a bad person?

Maybe the question should be, does this make me a worse person?

Warmachine Talon. 4 points of scrappiness

So I have painted my first War jack this week.

Decided on a Talon. I have used one several times and the scrappy little bastard has hung in there against much bigger opponents and lasted the game every time so it was an obvious first choice for me.

Due to the Jack only having one or two damage boxes left by the end of each of the games I have played with one I have decided to paint plenty of battle damage on it.

 

I have always thought Cylons were cool so it was an obvious choice when it come to painting the "eye". I drilled a couple of bullet holes into the hull and cut marks into the shield as he normally ends up in close combat with much bigger opponents.

The pearlescent effect was created by applying a couple of washes of GW purple ink over a coat of GW iron breaker. I went with the purple without realising it is the colour of the Highborn covenant. I just figured Cygnar are blue, Khador are red, mercenaries will fight for both. Blue mixed with red is purple!

Cycling in London I spend a lot of time staring at this!

So it was a natural choice when it come to the markings for the War jack Bases.

The black and yellow stripes for the Jack's extremities give the Jacks a more industrial vibe as I felt they were too "pretty" without them.

I made the shield particularly battered and scratched. I also painted a bloody hand print on the shield as I charged a unit of Skorne praetorians and I could imagine one of them putting their hand up to ward off the charge!

Each of my Jacks will be named. This fella is called "Jack the Jibber" (after Jack the Ripper). Jibbing is a term we use in Filipino martial arts for stabbing someone.

It took some doing but I finally managed to paint the pressure gauges onto the back of the Jack.

Seeing as I will be fielding less then a dozen figures in most battles I have decided to go to town on my Warmachine Faction rather then bulk paint like my Warhammer Fantasy army.

Bolt Action Pegasus Bridge. MEGC D - Day Anniversary commemoration

So I had a couple of hours free today so I knocked up a fabulous 28mm version of the Pegasus bridge to......................................

OK thats bull. George McCreight has been working on a 28mm scale model of the Bolt Action Pegasus Bridge set.

He has been posting regular WIP photos HERE and we had the big reveal today.

And what a reveal!! 

The board is completely scratch built and involved George dumpster diving at 6 in the morning!

I only got to photograph Lano's Japanese trying to take the bridge from Georges Paras but the photos look amazing.

wow thats a big bridge!

a bridge to far?

Lanos forces assemble. Damon photo bombs the photo with his tank

so we stay hidden behind this wall right?

this way fellas. Lanos forces assembled and painted in under 7 hours!

Stand to boys. Georges Paras prepare to hold their ground.

As long as they don't look up we will be fine.

Banzai

well that went well Lano

one nil, one nil, one nil

Blood Bowl. Damn the Gentlemen of the Realm.

Alister has become a bit of a Blood bowl fanatic and so we played a game this Thurs.

KICK OFF

I kick off and plonk the ball smack in the middle of Al's line.

Al collects the ball and makes charges down both flanks. I go strong down the left and plan to use my catchers to tie up the opposing blockers with tackles .

I go stompy of the left and try to channel the Gentlemen into the centre of the pitch to create a bottle neck.

I go in heavy against Sumo Sam but the asian sensation refuses to go quietly and my roll of double one sees two of my boys off to the stunned box.

I try to sandwich Al's left wingers to stall out the attack.......

................... while boots tries to run down Chun Lee.

With pressure building on Al's kicker he decides its time to send one over the top.

A roll of double one sees Chun Lee fumble the ball from his own square. Is a reversal on the cards?

Boots collects the ball and gets the kick off to the "Green streak" but the whistle goes before he gets a chance to cross the line...........so close................ so close.

SECOND HALF

So nil - nil and I'm receiving the ball. Got to fancy my chances.

I receive the ball and start legging it up the left wing. Hopefully no one will drop dead of a heart attack while sprinting this week!

I go blocker heavy at the front and decide to force my way up the left flank by fair means or foul.

Then it is my turn to suffer at the hands of the Dice Maidens as I roll a six on the sprint and my blitzer heads for the injury box, dropping the ball in the process.

In a series of disastrous rolls I see my Orcs dropping like flies as Al claims one scalp after another.

With only 4 Orcs left on the field I send the ball over the top and just hope to run down the clock.

No such luck as my Blocker is brought down and Al runs in the only touch down of the game to claim the win.

Well played Al.

Showing he's a coach after my own heart Al takes great pride in fulling my dug out with wounded!

I think I am going to need a bigger stunned box for next game!!

LESSON LEARNT

1) Al loves the up and under. I am going to have to either krunch the catchers as they bolt for the holes or break through the line and break Al's kicker deep in his own half.

2) Might be time to resurrect my 5 - 4 -2 formation from my 3rd edition games. It might leave me more vunerable at the front, but will stop the runners and maybe allow the blockers to break through and get to Chun Lee.

3) STOP SPRINTING YOU WALLY!!!!!!