Lead Painters' League - Season 9 is underway!

Round 5 of Season 9 of the Lead Painters League is underway over on the Lead Adventure Forum.
If you're not familiar with it get yourself over there to see some fantastic eye candy (as well as people going through their lead mountains at a cracking rate!)

In summary, paint up a team of miniatures, you're randomly paired off with another contestant, everyone votes for their favourite in the pairing and then onto the next round. There are ten rounds after which a league table of sorts has been established. There are bonus points for matching themes in three of the rounds. The theme from round 5 is 'Animals'.

I'd urge you to join up, take a good look and vote - you've still got a few days to do so.

Like previous years, I won't be telling you any of my favourites, but I will highlight a few match-ups where I reckon the opponents are very closely matched:

ATTACK OF THE CLOCKWORK MONKEYS vs SUN OF WINTER

SHOPPING IN CAIRO vs MASAI

LEGIONARIES vs THE HUNT

AFRICAN WILDLIFE vs TEXIANS

‘FORM RANKS, YOU MAGGOTS’ vs SOME MICE AND THEIR LEADERS

I missed out on the start of the league this year, but really looking forward to what's to come...

So Long, 2014

More like 'good riddance!' from a wargaming/blogging perspective. I haven't played or posted much at all. But here's a quick rundown of some highlights...

Gaming Highlights

Rogue Spear (Force on Force)
Ran a short campaign inspired by Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six novels at Leprecon. Smaller Force on Force games seem to be my favourite nowadays, as exemplified by the Classified book. There may be more from me next year along these lines...

Caen Campaign (Memoir '44)
I played in one of the campaign book's campaigns over a short day. Marvellous company and access to Mr. Kinch's drinks cellar makes this one a hit regardless (though the game was also great fun).

Black Sun (Pulp)
I haven't even gotten around to posting my reports on this from Gaelcon yet! But suffice to say this went down a hit. I even ran this entombed scenario three times on the Sunday for different groups of people.





Blogs

Hetairoi
This 6mm Bretonnians project is breath-taking. I love seeing these guys in action...

Dalauppror
While still spending effort on Medieval Scandinavian matters, it's great to see something else here

Table Terror
This Scooby Gang (especially the Mystery Machine) caught my eye. Even more than Michi's usual fare!

Books

Victory Point
Gives some valuable perspective on the events shown/written about in Lone Survivor.









Losing Small Wars
If the recent withdrawal of British forces from Afghanistan gave you pause, you owe it to yourself to read this book.









A Genius for War
Perhaps overstated at times, but this is a fascinating study of how the Prussian/German army staff was set up to succeed in wars, regardless of political leadership.









Releases

SOC-R Spec Ops Boat - S&S Models
These are going to get into some action in 2015 I hope. Some more 'classified' trouble ahead!

Hell Diver VTOL riders - Clear Horizon Miniatures
I just love the concept for these miniatures. While obviously not useful in every scenario, these figures are great colour for your sci-fi VTOLs

Battlegroup Barbarossa - Ironfist Publishing
Going back in time from Kursk and Fall of the Reich for a third look at the armies of Germany and the Soviet Union must've been no easy task. However the guys produce another game feeling significantly different from those which have gone before.

TV

The Blacklist
This is a cheese and ham platform for James Spader - perhaps the only thing salvaging the overblown plotting. But it's simply fantastic







Gravity Falls
Imagine that Twin Peaks had been made for kids, no need. Watch Gravity Falls instead.








True Detective
The writing and direction (all done by the same people across every episode) mean that this is one of the most evenly produced shows I've every seen. Added to the surprisingly strong performances from both leads (Matthew McConaughey & Woody Harrelson ), I recommend without reservation.



I've been spending a lot more time playing boardgames than previously, so maybe that's taking up time and energy previously spend blogging and wargaming. Perhaps I could try posting some of that...

Anyway, hope you had a great 2014, and here's to an even better 2015!

Auf Wiedersehen 2013

Trying to piece together some highlights of the year whilst recovering from various Christmas excesses. Hope you and yours had a good one too!

Gaming Highlights

Waterloo Day
Getting 8 or so wargamers to hole up for an entire day takes a bit of effort. Hats off to Conrad Kinch who disguised the Waterloo Campaign in three connected C&C Napoleonics scenarios. As the French, our gallant victories in the first two battles weren't enough to see us to the finishing line. Such a success, that plans are in motion for a similar game of Battle Cry...

Apocalypse World
I know, not a wargame by any stretch, but a damned good time was had by all in this roller-coaster ride of a post-apocalyptic game. This is the game that got me back into regular roleplaying with my group, so kudos are due.

The Hunt
The long-awaited Pulp meets Predator game was well-received. I ran this for what seems like a record-number of players at Gaelcon. The tension and heroism in that last game went to 11!

Blogs of the Year

Small Scale Ops

An entry on my best blogs list for the second time, not just for his ongoing work on BattleTech or his great moderns, but for his Aliens vs Predator project. Take a look around the great work on the Marines and terrain for gloomy corridors

Wargaming Girl

Tamsin's workrate beggars belief; in her celebratory prize draw I was lucky enough to get some post-apocalyptic survivors (including some familiar-looking pesky kids!) done by her

Lord Ashram's House of War

While concentrating on Longstreet for the past while, there's a good variety of projects going on over at Lord Ashram's. I was especially impressed by the 15mm moderns

New Releases

'Classified' for Force on Force

Having contributed significantly to this one, I am very biased. But I'm quite proud of my involvement and feedback has been very positive on the smaller-scale scenarios in this book.

Miniature Wargames (with BattleGames)

With BattleGames having been on the ropes less than a year ago, it's dizzying to think that the new merged magazine seems like a mainstay of my hobby reading (and arriving twice as often to boot!)

Antenociti's Aircar

This unmistakably civilian sci-fi vehicle looks lovely; Antenociti's range sets the standard for me now. 

Projects in the Pipeline

Rainbow Six

With the death of Tom Clancy late in the year, I revisited Rainbow Six to see if there was anything suitable for refitting as a wargames scenario. I've decided that Rogue Spear (the old PC game) might be a better fit, and a takedown inside a warehouse and/or cargo ship is definitely on the horizon

Istvan V Dropzone Massacre

I didn't get this off the ground at all this year, so I'm going to make a concerted effort to paint up my 50-strong force of marines with supporting units this time around.

The Diomedes

While I completed all of the fighter craft I was planning to, I wasn't able to actually find something suitable as the Diomedes itself until very recently. Putting this spaceship together will be a major goal of the year.

Outstanding TV

Utopia

This short dark conspiracy series was exceedingly well done, albeit quite disturbing. It followed the hunt for a comic book manuscript, which held a secret vital to stopping/continuing vast world-altering machinations.

Hannibal

I was very dubious when I first heard of this project. But I must admit to having been won over by the two central performances by Hugh Dancy (as Will Graham) and Mads Mikkelsen (as Hannibal) as well as the visual style of the production. The writing has been nigh-ingenious and the psychological horror is top-notch (whilst using the gore factor in a relatively restrained way)

The Americans

This Cold War thriller about two deep cover Soviet agents living in the US. Wigs, disguises and the constant danger of discovery make this one a bit more pulpy than usual, but it's highly enjoyable and well done once you buy into the idea.

Books of the Year

Slim, Master of War: Burma and the Birth of Modern Warfare

So, the title's a bit of a mouthful (as well as making a grand claim) but this history of the 'forgotten' 14th Army in Burma and it's path from defeat to victory tells a powerful story on the ability of one general to turn around the fate of a fighting force

Jawbreaker: the Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda

This straight-forward account by a CIA officer of his involvement in intelligence and military actions against Al Qaeda is well worth a look. It's heavily redacted in places, but despite this the narrative places the blame for Bin Laden's escape from Afghanistan squarely on central command's shoulders.

The Wargaming Compendium

Henry Hyde's all-encompassing coverage of tabletop miniatures wargaming is a must-have for gamers of all stripes. As would be expected the layout and photography is top-notch.

As always, I hope you all have a great 2014!

Kickstarter Delivers!

So after kickstarting my first project some 12 months ago, I finally got two deliveries last week!

The first one was the large box of Gunship: First Strike, a tactical space combat game which looks very well put together indeed.

The second was the Adventures of the 19XX, a graphic novel of pulp adventures in the 1930s.

So obviously I'm going to have to play/read these at some stage, but maybe when things calm down in a few weeks. Trying to get around to posting some game reports from Leprecon and another few recent games.

Adiós 2012

Hopefully you'll forgive me my recent hiatus - work and home have been hectic and I've gotten in just a single game in the last two months. Overall though, it's been a good year, so as usual here are some highlights:

Gaming Highlights

The Package
My work was published in Battlegames as a command challenge - a small engagement for Force on Force graced those esteemed pages and I've gotten some nice feedback since

Pulp Escapades
I ran a three-part campaign at Gaelcon using Perilous Trail, previously only seen in use hunting dinosaurs, but this time to track the adventures in pursuit of the Lost Treasure of Annobon...

BattleGroup Kursk
Took part in the big game down in Kildare, where we were hosted ably by Piers et al and everyone had a great lark playing this massive game just before its official release





Blogs of the Year

Dougie's Wargaming Blog
In my humble opinion, everything Dougie touches turn into gold! Between his stand-out moderns and really useful tutorials (both miniatures and terrain) this is well worth a look

Small Scale Ops
This year, I'm particularly impressed by Chris' BattleTech stuff - his (1/144 Macross) Davion & Kurita collection is gob-smackingly good!

Lard Island News
Usually I would avoid nominating an 'official' blog like this, but the guys over at Two Fat Lardies are having too much fun with their games for me to ignore it. I also love the extra insights they give us into game design (specifically for their Dux Britanniarum game).




New Releases

Medieval Scots
Claymore Castings' new line of medieval Scots is well worth a look if you're ata all interested in wargaming the late 14th century. From the look of them they’ll be usable for the Hundred Years War and War of the Roses without too much heartache, and given they seem to measure up pretty well with the Perrys’ range.

BattleGroup Kursk
Plastic Soldier Company released this lovely book back in October and I'm incredibly impressed by the look-and-feel of it in reproducing a wargame that feels like Kursk. Normandy and Fall of the Reich to come out next year

M-ATVs
I’m particularly impressed by the M-ATVs (the Humvee’s replacement) from S&S as there’s loads of different options along with oodles of stowage available.





Projects in the Pipeline

Istvaan V Dropzone

Planning to do this one-sided battle from the Horus Heresy with Steve - he'll be running it with Tomorrow's War, bringing his Chaos Marines out of cold-storage. I'll be (finally) painting my collection of Alternative Armies Firefight/Ion Age line







Attack on the Diomedes

I want to do a large scale game pitting fighters against a cruiser. I'm going to use some of Brigade's fighters to take on a scratch-built warship...
This is one for the slow-cooker. Aiming to get on the table for early 2014!




Solo-Gaming
Having been unable to get around to this in November/December I'm going to take another run at the two solo campaigns previously touted here sometime next year...

Outstanding TV

Homeland
Actually, season 1 was shown first over here earlier this year, so this is for both seasons. If the premise involved stretches credulity for you, then the acting by the two main leads (Claire Danes and Damian Lewis) makes this an outstanding show to watch

Newsroom
Although this new Aaron Sorkin vehicle may have painted itself into a corner in terms of how it can achieve its aims of changing the way the news is reported. I'd prefer less of the smaltzy romance, but otherwise it's definitely worth a look if you miss the West Wing.

Justified
This is DVD viewing, since no channel of note on this side of the Atlantic seems to have picked it up! Based on a single Elmore Leonard short story, old-school U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (played by Timothy Olyphant) kicks ass across Kentucky.

Books of the Year

Apocalypse World
This is a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game by D. Vincent Baker I picked up after playing a dungeon-crawling spin-off at Gaelcon. The mechanics and setup are so well put together, I'm tempted to use the word 'genius' when describing them. I intend to put my money where my mouth is (so to speak) and run this next time around in our roleplaying group.





Sniper One
This account of a tour in Iraq by British Army sniper Dan Mills is intense and delivered in a no-nonsense fashion.








The Heroes
For me, this defintely counts as Joe Abercrombie mixing it up in the same setting as The First Law. Excepting the Black Company, I can't think of as anti-war a fantasy novel as this (off the top of my head at least).







Hope you had a good 2012, here's to a great '13 on all fronts