Monsters in the Sky artwork

In case you missed it (like I did in my hiatus), there is some very kewl airship artwork up from the Monsters in the Sky project at the Catalyst games website:

http://monstersinthesky.com/?page_id=155

1871: The Battle of Dorking

It was on Tuesday, the 10th of August, that the fleet sailed from the Downs. It took with it a submarine cable to lay down as it advanced, so that continuous communication was kept up, and the papers were publishing special editions every few minutes with the latest news…. This went on till the Thursday morning. I had just come up to town by train as usual, and was walking to my office, when the newsboys began to cry, “New edition – enemy’s fleet in sight!”.… It was about ten o'clock that the first telegram came; an hour later the wire announced that the admiral had signalled to form line of battle, and shortly afterwards that the order was given to bear down on the enemy and engage. At twelve came the announcement, “Fleet opened fire about three miles to leeward of us” – that is, the ship with the cable. So far all had been expectancy, then came the first token of calamity. “An ironclad has been blown up” – “the enemy's torpedoes are doing great damage” – “the flag-ship is laid aboard the enemy” – “the flag-ship appears to be sinking” – “the vice-admiral has signalled to” – there the cable became silent, and, as you know, we heard no more till, two days afterwards, the solitary ironclad which escaped the disaster steamed into Portsmouth.
- The Battle of Dorking

A cracking read if you havent come across it by now, and now a wargame by Draken Games! Available for download through wargame vault:

http://www.wargamevault.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=2492&products_id=63471

"1871: The Battle of Dorking" allows two players to find out what might have happened at the key battle of this fictional campaign. Along with the rules and all the cut-outs needed, full background notes are given regarding Chesney's original book, the context of the campaign and the weaponry, organisation and tactics of both armies. A game should last two hours on a first play, reducing to 90 minutes once familiar with the rules.

Contains:
Rules and Background
2 Piece 8.5"x11" map
57 double-sided counters
28 single-sided counters

Thee you go, I'd be interested to hear form anyone who has played it - cheers!

Mea Culpas

Its true, I am a (typical) wargamer with no sense of consistency, and wade between gaming genres with no rhythm or plan. Indeed you can see from the posting rates here - its feast or famine, with not much to rave about of late.

Anyhow, with the last of my tertiary efforts now complete (and hanging on the wall), the VSF flame has been rekindled. Ironically, I found that this is the exact same time this happened a few years ago when on the first day of Spring (here in the Colonies that is), I got out all my stuff and cataloged it. A few small additions since then but nothing too significant.
http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/2007/09/new-nefs-and-balance-of-power.html

Anyhow, I figure the time is ripe to delve into the big box of unmade lead and see what inspires me in the run up the White Wine Sauce's 4th Anniversary next Feb. I think the Russians might be well overdue for some attention actually, and of course their worthy Japanese adversaries too...

(Image courtesy of Wessex Games)

More Germans

Here are some close-ups of Nuni's lovely German Nefs. I really like the way he has added colour to them with the red keels and the deck staining.

He tells me:
These I actually did some research and found that some German ships of the period had a reddish lower hull side and I tried to go for that look, with a grey superstructure. I decided I wanted the deck to feel darker than was the actual case

- white undercoat
- 1:1 vallejo game colour gory red/blood red for the side of the hull
- GW ogryn flesh wash on the decking followed by a watered down GW badab black wash
- GW foundation adeptus battlegrey on the turrets, superstructure and the sides an rear of the tail
- GW bleached bone on the top of the tail and superstructure, followd by devlan mud wash
- GW chaos black for the chimneys
- Devlan mud wash on the masts

New Brits and Germans

Nuno (aka Rastamann from the TacCom boards) has finished up his British and German starter sets and they have come out beautifully!

Well done Old boy! They look great and I love the thematic presentation style you've adopted. Great stuff!

More VSF Goodies from Brigade!

New releases have been announced for the LI and Aeronef ranges.

The new stuff includes 2mm infantry (no pics yet) and this Fokker style triplane for Aeronef!

MONI Workbench Article

Another of Dampf's great scratch-build works has been featured at TMP's workbench section.

For a full view go here: http://theminiaturespage.com/workbench/4896/



Great work once again Dampf!

Leviathans

Catalyst games has been showing off its new project- Leviathans: an alternate history miniatures game of air fleet battles set in 1910. For us that means more pulpy airship goodness!
(actually, Ive been excited about this one for awhile - see my post here: http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/2008/08/leviathan-new-vsf-game.html)




Over Togo's head the Zed flag was burning. The pride of the Japanese fleet, the battleship Mikasa, his Mikasa, was sinking. His aide tried to pull him toward the lifeboats, but Togo stopped and looked up. He saw the battered Russian leviathan claw its way into the blue sky. And at that moment Admiral Togo Heihachiro knew that Japan would not rule the east, after all. And one more thing. It was not the age of the gun.

It was the age of the sky.

There is also a promising new associated blog, "Monsters in the Sky" started up here:
http://monstersinthesky.com/

Hold onto your goggles chaps, this is looks to be a good ride!

The Defence of Melbourne

I have been meaning to get around to posting about this excellent emo game put on at CANCON 09, yet sadly haven't found the time. But now, I've found this excellent Blog by the guys themselves:

http://defence-of-melbourne.blogspot.com/

It was a great game using 25mm figs and modified TSATF rules. And as you can see, the scratchbuilt models and terrain are just stunning!

I'll try to clean up the pics I took and add them too

War of the Worlds with LI

A TMP thread discusses the use of :LI to fight out WOTW scenarios:

Fires in the Night Sky or How I learned to stop worrying and love the Madhi

SitRep: The Madhi forces had been pushing hard along the Nile toward a small port of Abba-Dabba Do. An Anglo-Egyptian force has marched to protect this town from the advancing enemy. During the night before the battle, huge fires in the Madhi camp lit the night skys and the frenzied warchants of the fathful could be heard. The defenders of Abba-Dabba Do steeled themselves for the coming assault.

When the dawn broke, the defenders were in for a suprise….

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=166839

More pics here:

http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z320/Evad77/War%20of%20the%20Worlds/

Great job chaps!

Land Ironclad errata

Brigade have posted the official LI rules errata to their page here:

http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/Frames/Gaming/LandIronclads/Errata.html

Thanks lads!

MiniWarGaming

Just found this nifty site, which can direct you to a bunch of other neat gaming places and leave you utterly lost in cycberspace - Bravo, I say!

I've registered this humble site there, so feel free to check it out and leave a rating for the old YIAWWS - cheers old bean!

http://www.miniwargaming.com/siterater/s67wEhocteWG

Savage Space 1889 Announced!

Pinnacle Entertainment Group and Frank Chadwick are proud to announce Space 1889: Red Sands!* Using the award-winning Savage Worlds system, Pinnacle will release a single Savage Worlds Plot Point Campaign (TM), entitled Space 1889: Red Sands.

Red Sands pits a desperate band of heroes against the Inner Circle of the Brotherhood of Luxor. The Brotherhood, led by the mysterious Kronos, King of the Titans, plots to bring about the end of all worlds. From the mountains of Mars to the swamps of Venus, our intrepid explorers must stop the Brotherhood from plunging the entire solar system into a bloody war to end all wars!

Shane Hensley of Pinnacle said "Space 1889 is one of my all-time favorite settings. Being able to play in Frank's amazing world is a real treat for all of us."

Space 1889: Red Sands will be a full-color hardback release. Page count and price is not yet determined. It is expected to release in September of '09.

The Savage Worlds core rules are required.

http://www.peginc.com/Art/Articles/Space1889/Space1889.html

More Weird WW1

Part 4 has been uploaded now - I love the barrage balloons!

http://steelonsand.blogspot.com/2009/03/weird-wwi-1919-part-4.html

Wotan Review

"JohnCS" has posted a review (and some nice pics) of Brigade's WOTAN class Land Ironclad for the Imperial German Army:

http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=711

Thanks John!