Monday, April 22, 2013

Market Garden Madness!

Yesterday my friends at Eagle & Empire (now with facebook page!) in Alexandria, VA hosted a massive Operation Market Garden refight.

Sadly, I didn't get to play due to some other obligations. But I did get to drop by and take a peak, and some photos, of the action

It looked like everyone was having a blast, and got to put tons of toys on the table. Including an incredible 14 .88's!

That's huge. Some one is going to catch those full in the face! 

Here, have some pics!

It all started one sunny afternoon...


WAAAAY more after the break

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Infinity. Yes, Infinity

Cause... It's Infinite I guess?
Third one down! So, one of my gamer homies has been preaching the gospel of Infinity as the bestest most awesomest skirmish game that ever happened to a table top. Now, I'll admit, my first experience with the game was less than optimal. In fact, it was so bad I thought I'd never come back to it.

However, the models are sweet and you only need 10 to 15 of them and the rules are free. So I said what the hell and had him run me through a second learn to play. This time around I liked it. I liked it at least enough to pick up some models to round out the ones I bought originally and start putting paint to lead.

That, by the way, is a monkfish.
Now, if you don't know anything about Infinity it's set about 175 years in the future, we've found wormholes and many countries have come together to form just a few human factions. America, I think because this game was written by Europeans  sucks and plays very little of a role so far (like 5 models for one of the factions). I kind of think of it like Shadowrun the miniatures game in space with your crew going up against the other guys crew, and then the aliens attack. Stupid aliens. So now you've got the human factions fighting each other and the aliens.

I won't go in depth in to the rules today (cause I'm tired and it totally deserves an article of it's own) but for a quick break down: The thing that makes this game unique is that even on the acting players turn the other player gets a chance to react to moves. Like if one of my guys saunters around the corner, your dude gets a chance to take a pot shot at him. The other thing that's a bit different is that, instead of activating each unit once, you get a pool of orders equal to the number of units you have and you can (pretty much) distribute them how you like. Thus, one dude could end up acting 5 or more times in a turn if you so choose.

The faction I'm starting with is Haqqislam. A humanist, focused greater islamic state that acts in some ways like the bio-technological backbone and mercantile powerhouse of the human space territories. They've got some sweet models (most of the factions have amazing models actually, except for nomads, I just don't get them at all) and the great thing about the game is that you can pretty much choose the models you like and build an effective army out of them. The mantra on the Infinity message boards is "It's not your list, it's you" an attitude I admire.

Now, I've only knocked out 2 models so far. But because of the level of detail on these guys it feels like an achievement. So here they are!

An Odalesque, essentially beautiful bodyguards wearing special makeup that makes them hard to hit in close combat... The Future is weird... But it kind of turns me on.

More after the break!

SAAAAGAAAA

Number 2 post on the night! Recently I got the Saga bug, even more recently WWPD held a most excellent fundraiser for veterans. I was offered a dollar for every Saga fig I painted in a week. I got through 16.

WOOF! That, for me, is a serious speed painting success! And it also knocked out 3 of the 7 points of dudes I have for my Anglo-Dane/Saxon army.

First up will be the warriors which are armored Saxon Theigns by Wargames Factory from the Hammer of the Gods line. The good thing about these mini's is that they're cheapo! It's like 36 mini's for 20 bucks. The bad thing about these mini's is that they don't come with bases, the swords break quite easily and the shields don't look like the ones from the gripping beast lines. The good thing is, it's Saga, so it doesn't really matter, my dudes with axes will attack your dudes with axes and much fun will be had by all.

The second set of images, with the long (Danish) Axes are my Hearthguard. These are the big beefy dudes in your army. You buy them in sets of 4 and get twice as many attacks per model as the warriors. The 8 warriors I chose to paint are 5 from the Anglo-Dane starter set plus Harold Godwinson (Of 1066 fame) and his two brothers. Gripping beast makes some great mini's and I had fun painting the shield designs on these guys. However, I will be using decals for the 36 levies (weak line troops) I'll be painting up. I like painting shields, just not that much. Natch.

Now, on to the pics!


Harold Godwinson, King of the Anglo-Saxons

More after the Break!

French. Finished.

Can you guess where I am?
I'm on the road! So I thought I'd post a quick trifecta of blogs this evening covering some of the work I've done over the last month or so.

First up, my early war French. With which I got 5th place a recent tournament, not bad if I do say so my self. The only dude who beat me was the illustrious Scott from Itty Bitty Soldiers and WWPD fame. I'll get you next time.

As my internet is crap in the hotel room and it'll take some time to up load these I'm going to keep it short and sweet. I'll just say the Panhards and Somuas were a joy to paint. Infantry is always a bear though. But, i think everything turned out quite nicely.

A note on the pics, it appears I had a crappy color correction going on so it's a bit blue shifted. I'm going to try to get some cleaner pics when I get some gumption but I think these will work for now :)

Constructive Criticism always welcome. Now, on to the pics!



More after the break!