Artizan Miniatures Frontier Scouts

As part of my new Space Frontier obsession, courtesy of Five Parsecs From Home and Star Wars threads on Lead Adventure (the most dangerous website to visit, even more than Ebay), I bought a few new figures.  I got the brand new Artizan Miniatures Frontier Scouts (FSF002) which were just released a couple of weeks ago as part of a small new line of figures (just the two packs).  Since they are so new, I have not seen any pictures of them anywhere, so thought I would take a couple of comparisons to show them off.

Artizan Miniatures Frontier Scouts against Stargrave body

Picture 1 shows one of the figures against a Stargrave plastic crew person body, and you can see that he is much taller, and thinner. (look for a more comprehensive review of the Stargrave crew I box in the future)

Artizan Miniatures Frontier Scouts compared to various miniatures

Comparison shot against a grab bag of figures I pulled out of a few drawers.  Left to right we have: Copplestone back of beyond, GW Stormtrooper (old), the three Frontier Scouts, the Rogue Stars Rogue, an old WoTC Star Wars figure, and oldest of all a Necromunda Scum figure.   As you can see the Frontier figures fit in pretty well here, but are tall and thin, with more realistic proportions compared to many figures. 

Artizan Miniatures Frontier Scouts height

Over all I really like the figures, as they have sort of a retro 70's Scifi look that is a bit rare, and their relatively low level of equipment presents more of a blank slate for imagination/additions than many figures these days.  Two of the figures have pistols (which look as if they could either be machine pistols or laser pistols), and one is unarmed, which is unusual for these sort of figures. They are a bit tall at 32mm+, but overall I think an interesting development for Artizan, and I would like to see more of them.  Listed for £6.60 they are not too expensive per figure either. 

Battlefront 1/100 M4A1 Tank Kit Review

As part of the massive boxed Flames of War starter "Hit the Beach" (which I got for my birthday), you get eight sprues of American M4A1 Sherman tanks.

Battlefront M4A1 Sherman tank sprue

The eight tank sprues make two variants of the iconic cast body M4 tank (over 9,500 built), and with the added three 76mm gun sprues, it can make two more variants.

Battlefront M4A1 76mm cannon/large hatch sprue

The 76mm gun sprue adds a larger hatch version of the hull top, the T23 two hatch turret, and of course a 76mm gun.

Anyway, eight tanks that build up into four different variants is pretty cool, but how is the kit itself?

Added radio antenna, commander, and magnetized M2 heavy machine gun

I found the kit a complete delight to build.  The plastic is the same sort of very hard and very precise casting you get on high quality model kits, rather than the softer (but more durable) plastic you get with miniatures.  If you look at the picture above, the tanks are in one plastic type, and the commander is another.  The tank does not quite fall together, but the fit is so precise that you have to be more careful about dry-fitting than usual... because you might not get the piece out easily to glue!  Like many Battlefront tanks, the turrets are set up to either take a peg (included) or a pair of 5x1mm magnets (not included).

With the Hit the Beach starter, you get eight tanks, three 76mm sprues, and one American tank commander sprue. (there are a further two Commonwealth tank commanders on the infantry sprues, but the M4A1 was mostly used by the US).  This allows you to build either a company command of two tanks and a platoon of five tanks, or two short platoons of four tanks each.  (the Battlefront suggested layout of two command tanks and two short platoons of three tanks each is also an option)  The major deficiency of buying the tanks this way vs. the dedicated tank platoon box is no decals, but white stars are not that hard to paint...

At a retail cost of $6.25 (US) per tank, it is not the cheapest option (although it is cheaper than most alternatives); however, for that price you also get a commander sprue, which would cost more from most sellers (and of course you also get three PzIV tanks, two Pak40s, a terrain piece, and three platoons of infantry).  That makes it a great deal if you need any of those items, have a friend to share with, or sell on eBay.

In summary, great little tank models, and highly recommended.

Gamers Grass

Back in June (!), I got a few sheets of grass from Gamer's Grass, and yesterday I finally got around to using them.

Previously I had used a sheet of Army Painter 6mm Highland Tuft, which I got from Amazon, and was highly crushed when I got it.  I liked the look of it, but it was sort of a pain to cut pieces from, and the price was not great. So when it started to run low, I looked elsewhere.

Size comparison with a Abdul on a 30mm base (and terrible exposure)

Comparison between the Gamers Grass and the Army Painter Grass

Ordering from Gamer's Grass was very easy, and I even saved a few pennies by paying in GBP instead of USD, which was nice. The sheets came packed in a sturdy box, and were not folded or mashed in any way.  The tufts are perhaps a bit more regular than I would like, however, the colors are great, and they are very easy to use.  I certainly see the utility in having a number of colors on hand, and am already considering adding to my stash...

North Star 1864 Sample figure

A little over a week ago, I was perusing some pictures of forthcoming Frostgrave figures on the North Star Facebook page.  I noticed that there was a picture of a mid-1800's figure, with text indicating that North Star would mail out a sample figure of this forthcoming range of 1864 Danes if requested.  Like a shot, I put in my request, and on Friday I got the figure.

This is for the North Star 1864 range, which is aimed at the Second Schleswig War, which besides being an interesting war fought between Denmark and Prussia/Austria during a time of political and technological change, is also the subject of a recent TV series.

Map of Denmark and the duchies in question

Below are a series of pictures comparing the figure I revived (one of the pack NSD003 - Danish Infantry at the Ready. 1864) with some of the various figures I had in the lead mountain.

1864 Dane right side

1864 Dane left side

L to R: Forgotten Glorious French Officer, 1864 Dane, Pulp gangster, Copplestone Soviet

L to R: Perry Plastic Dragoon, 1864 Dane, GW Steel Legion, GW Valhallan

A look at the face

As you can see from the above picture, the figure falls nicely into the "28mm" size, although it is a bit smaller than some figures in my collection.  To the eye, I would estimate that this casting is only 27mm, and it is substantially more slender than the GW figures. This may be in part due to this figure being a younger man, as you can tell from the face.  The casting seems to be fairly good over all, with no obvious mold lines, and just a bit of flash and a bit of extra metal on the bayonet which needs to be trimmed away.  Being unfamiliar with the equipment of this army, I can not comment on the uniform or the pack, but it seems to fit with the few pictures I have seen.  All in all, I think this figure would be great en mass, and would probably work out ok for single mounted skirmish type gaming.

Armies of the Napoleonic Wars: An Illustrated History

Earlier this week, I finished reading Armies of the Napoleonic Wars: An Illustrated History, an Osprey publication edited by Chris McNab.  As is often the case when I am interested in something historical, I gather up some related books for a read, partly as a way to satisfy my interest without spending much if any money, and partly to refine my thoughts on the period as a game.  In this case, being recently interested in the Napoleonic period again, I turned to this book, which I got as a gift from my sister a few years ago.

When this book was listed by Ospery as forthcoming, there was a great deal of interest on TMP, because it was assumed that this would be a collection of the Men at Arms books from Osprey, with all the text and plates.  While it seems unlikely in retrospect that Osprey would take their money making series and provide it in a more economical package, at the time that was the thought, and operating under that assumption, I put this book "on the list" and got it as a gift.

Unfortunately, as it turns out this book is more like an overview of the various armies involved and it has very few plates from the relevant MAA books.  Most of the text for each country deals with high level organization, which as you might imagine changed quite a bit from 1797 to 1815.  There is little in the way of tactical discussion, uniform discussion, or discussion of flags and banners.  Someone without a prior understanding of the period, major technologies, and battles, would likely be lost.

This book also has all the usual Osprey foibles, such as the reproduction of period color art works in black and white, concentration of strange or unusual uniforms in plates, and deep discussion of rare troop types while the common line infantry are skipped over. Smaller countries get little to no mention in the book, and more discussion of Balkan elements of the French army (and more plates!) than for any of the German states, including the larger ones like Bavaria or Saxony.  There is also a bit of editorial bias in this book verging on jingoism, where somehow the peninsular war is the most important theater of battle, but this is common in British texts.

So to sum it up, this book was pretty disappointing, both from a wargaming point of view, and from a history point of view.  It does have some interesting plates and paintings, and does cover a number of nations, but I think it can only be recommended to those who want an overview of the reorganizations of the various armies, and who do not already own the relevant MAA titles.

First Model

For Fathers' day this year, my three year old son and I built his very first model kit together. It was a model plane that came with a Target gift card, which looked like this:

Always nice to get a "free" model

The "kit" consisted of two sprues of pre-painted hard styrene plastic, which snapped together, fairly tightly.  The instructions were almost easy enough for a three year old to follow, and the parts were pretty easy to cut from the sprue with clippers (I did not use a knife for obvious reasons).  The seems to be loosely based on a Stearman biplane, and if you were so inclined, you could probably modify it to work with 28mm figures pretty easily. (remove the dog head, cut out a cockpit, and cut down the wing struts to the correct height)  Alternatively, you could get a couple of them, and use them for dogfighting...

The best part?  My son had a good time.  Now I just need to get him started on painting so I can sub-out my army production...

John Carter

Pardon for the paucity of posts lately, but with Easter and some sickness, I just have not been able to manage it.  Hopefully next week will be better in that regard, as I still have five more lists for the d1000 Inquisitor project, and then hope to wrap up everything with a finalized list.

My wife and I did manage to watch John Carter this week.  This is the second time I have tried to watch the movie, the first failed due to lack of time before our vacation, so I was doubly determined to get through it.  Spoilers if you have not read the book or seen the movie previously.

The movie loosely follows "A Princess of Mars" in retelling John Carter's first visit to Barsoom.  Briefly, John Carter is a washed up gold miner, who is recruited into the US cavalry, refuses to join because of his desire not to fight, escapes has a brush with Apaches (caused by the cavalry), finds the cave of gold, and then slays a Thern and accidentally travels to Mars. There, his side of the story goes mostly as told in the book, and it is not until we get to Dejah Thoris that things deviate.  In this version of the story, there are only two Red Martian cities left, Zodanga and Helium, and Zodanga is winning through the influences of the Therns. Dejah is the daughter of the Jeddak (rather than granddaughter), and is a scientist involved in research into the 9th ray (not currently used by the Red Martians).  She flees, is captured by the Tharks (as in the book), but is immediately given to John as war booty, rather than being distant.  The immediately escape with Sola and Woola to travel down the river to Issus, which they think is related to the Therns.  There, they find out about transporting John Carter back to Jasoom, get attacked by the Warhoon tribe, and then are rescued by Helium's one ship navy. 

Dejah agrees to marry the prince of Zodanga to bring peace, John Carter does not want to fight, and will return to Earth.  Naturally, he starts to change his mind, and is then captured by a Thern, who through a succession of shape changes, tells him about the Therns, who are somehow taking energy from Mars to fuel their race, and want Zodanga to destroy Helium. John naturally escapes, goes and collects a Thark army, sacks Zodanga to prevent the wedding, finds that the wedding is in Helium, goes there, and stops it.  He then marries Dejah himself, and everyone is happy, until the next night when he is sent back to Earth by a Thern.  He awakens in the cave, and then spends his life tying to find a way back to Mars.

Some of the changes help to make the movie easier to understand in the limited time span, although since they expected to make a trilogy, some of the other changes do not really make that much sense (showing Issus, using Therns as they did, sending John back before he can have children, and so on).  Zodanga also has a walking city for no reason.

A few small things annoyed me about the movie, such as the moons not appearing correctly, John's jumping ability being so.. superman like, the flying ships were not ships, so much as dragonfly winged galleys, white apes as giants, and Woola was great, but far too fast.  Mars also appeared to be far more dead in the movie than in the books, as the ever present ochre plant life was not ever present. (and there were no farms, canals, or other plant life either)

Dejah Thoris could have been cast better, I was expecting someone more like Ornella Muti in Flash Gordon, i.e. someone who could plausibly be the most beautiful woman on a planet full of them. (I did not expect book accurate clothing in a Disney film).  John Carter was not lusty for battle in the movie as he was in the book (originally written pre-war), but that may have been hard to pitch in this more pacific era.  The introduction of a dead wife and child to his back story was puzzling, because it both prohibited him from falling in love with Dejah when he met her, and meant that he was less of a mercenary drifter as a broken man.  The Sola/Tars Tarkas sub plot was handled and condensed quite well.

Overall though, it was worth the price I paid for it, and worth spending a few hours watching.  If you are a Barsoom fan, I suggest you watch it.

I am currently on the last volume of the Collected John Carter of Mars, so more Barsoom to come. (contain your excitment!)

Priests of Mars

I just finished reading the relatively new book Priests of Mars by Graham McNeill.   Published July of 2012, This book is about an explorator fleet of the Adeptus Mechanicus, which is going to go beyond the "Halo Scar" in search of similar fleet that was lost long ago.  The object of the original fleet was to find various artifacts of the Golden Age of humanity, which supposedly have the power to terraform dead worlds, drain stars for power, and so on.  Various parties are connected to this search, such as a Cadian regiment, Titans, Black Templars, and a Rogue Trader.  They are opposed in their quest by a shipful of Eldar, and various elements from within the Mechanicus itself.

The really interesting part of this book for me was the variety of Tech Priests and Magos on parade.  You have "brain in many separate jars" guy, and "body given over to combat" guy, and a few recognizably female members too, which is in and of itself interesting as well. This sort of description is useful beyond the confines of this story for those of you interested in making Adeptus Mechanicus armies, or INQ28 skirmish bands.  It also reminds you how being press ganged as a serf on a ship would not be the life of adventure that you might expect.

Unfortunately, just as the action is really getting started, the book ends, so one has to wait for the sequel to get anywhere in this story.  (the story ends with a few cliff hanger elements as well)  Fortunately for me, I got this book from the local library, so did not have to pay $25 for what is ultimately only part of a story. Recommend that you wait for the inevitable omnibus edition, unless you need to read about the various morphology of the Tech Priests.

The Twelve

Thanks to the local library, I read the second book in Justin Cronin's Passage trilogy this week.  Titled The Twelve, it is set mostly about five years after the first book, and fills in some details about how the world before is swept away by the virals.  A new antagonist is introduced, and some effort is made to eliminate the remaining twelve original virals.

I found the book to be adequate in advancing the overall plot, although it felt quite a bit more "Hollywood" than the first book, and had what seemed be some changes in characterization, in particular the affliction of 'Lish and Amy.  Over all not quite as good, but more even in tone and structure.  Recommended if you read the first book, otherwise you probably need not bother (although it is self contained enough that you could start with this one).

The next book, City of Mirrors, is due sometime in late 2014, so I assume I will read it in early 2015, after which the movies will probably start to come out (or the rights will lapse).

It occurred to me on the way into work, that a portion of the book had a very 40k feel, and might make for an excellent scenario for Inquisitor/Necromunda or other 40k skirmish games.  I have placed it after a jump break, because it may spoil a portion of the book.

7 Wonders

Some friends of ours were visiting from Philadelphia this weekend, and they gave us a belated Christmas present in the form of a new game: 7 Wonders.  First published in 2010, 7 Wonders is a strategy card game, where two to seven players work through three decks of cards (for three "ages") and accumulate played cards in a tableaux which provide some benefits during the game, and victory points at the conclusion.  Each player may build an assigned world wonder, which will give either additional victory points or some sort of mechanical bonus, such as resources or free building.

We played four games, two with three players, and two with four, depending on the needs for childcare, and had a great time.  The game plays fairly quickly, with our games taking around 45 minutes to complete (including the scoring round, which can be complicated!)  Players are dealt seven cards, select one to play per turn, and then pass the rest of the cards to the left or right depending on the round. Cards may be paid for with resources, or placed for free depending on their cost section, and then either provide victory points directly, or provide some sort of benefit.  As is common in Euro styled games, none of the cards are played "against" the other players, but you do have to keep track of their various bonus schemes and resources as the game progresses.  Military cards merely provide military points, and then once per "age" your score is compared to your neighbors and you get victory points if you have a higher score than they do.

The game was fun, and fairly fast, and I recommend it. As an added bonus I see that there are currently two expansions (leaders and cities), and another is coming out soon, so should we get tired of the basic set, there are more options out there to keep it fresh.

Gentlemen of the Road

On the recommendation of Ckutalik(via this post on historical fiction for fantasy readers), I requested the book Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon from the local library. A short novel or novella, it is about the adventures of a Fafhrd and Gray Mouser type in the 950s in western Asia; a fairly gripping read, I knocked it out in a couple of hours. The book itself is lovely, with two color typeset, and illustrations by Gary Gianni, who is apparently currently working on the Prince Valiant comics in papers. I recommend it for those who like quick adventure stories.

However, like all good historical fiction, the real star is the setting, which here is Western Asia, and more specifically Khazaria, a Turkic empire established in 618 AD and lasted nearly 400 years.  This empire existed as a sort of third wheel to the conflicts between the Eastern Empire to the west and the early Caliphate to the south, and contains names both known to most, and strange. The empire was multi-ethnic AND multi-faith, and had both a diverse economy and significant military activity. For a while at least the country had a dual kingship, with one king responsible for administration, and the other more of a figurehead (and held as a sort of prisoner in a palace). Unusually, the rulers of the country converted to Judaism in the 8th century, possibly as a way to stand in between their Christian and Muslim neighbors.

Frankly, I think it would be perfect for a theft and insertion into a D&D game, or possibly outright use in a more historical game.  The silk road and the multi-ethnic nature of the empire make it perfect for any random character to show up, and there would be plenty of raids to defeat and convoys to attack.  With place names that are both familiar and foreign, and with a history merely sketched in by a few primary documents, it has much to recommend it for adventure.

Conan the Barbarian (2011)

My wife and I watched Conan the Barbarian (2011) earlier this week, once again thanks to the local library. [technically, I watched it, and she mostly worked on a project using her laptop]

I was not super impressed.  The story was a bit weak, and some of the action was a bit too fake or staged seeming.  The early sequences with "young Conan" were pretty good, and the bad guy was pretty menacing in that sequence.  The first bit with a "grown up" Conan gave me exactly the feel I expected from the stories I have read, replete with T&A, drinking, and enjoyment of combat.  Some of the elements were a bit off though, like dragging a boat around to use as a tent seemed a bit excessive, particularly as it seemed to be both elephant borne and pulled by slaves.  As is often the case in these sorts of movies, the technological levels were wildly inconsistent. (Cast iron and watermills with semi-nomadic fur wearing barbarians)

Jason Momoa was pretty good as Conan, giving what seemed like a closer representation to the character from the books than Arnold did.  Rachel Nichols was OK as the love interest, with some unevenness to her character depiction, resulting from script issues more than acting I think. Rose McGowan was adequate, but not as menacing as the actress who played the young character. With a box office return of about half of its budget, I expect we have seen the last of this Conan series, which is too bad, because I would have liked to see what they did with another film or series of films.

A number of visuals from the film would be good to steal for D&D games, such as a skull shaped temple on the edge of a cliff, spewing water out of its mouth. The ruined city in the hidden valley, although the ninja guardians would perhaps be a bit much.  The sand warriors poured out of a vial were pretty cool, and would definitely make for a great D&D item.

In other news the Ogre Designer Edition Kickstarter is over $500,000 as of this writing, and still has six days to go.  If you get the kickstarter backer version ($150), you get an extra sheet of counters, a box with your name on it, PDF copies of the rules, and some assorted swag.  Pretty pricey for a game I have never played... but it does look amazing.

Dungeon Master for Dummies

Thwarted in my quest to read D&D material from the local library due to lost or stolen material, I settled for the Dungeon Master for Dummies book by Bill Slavicsek and Richard Baker, written for Dungeons and Dragons version 3.5.  I had pretty low expectations for this book, and it took me quite a number of lunches to get through, but here are some thoughts:

Much is made of the concept of "DM as social director" where the DM is essentially hosting a party and providing for the entertainment of same. This makes sense if the DM is actually the host, but it seems like there must be groups that meet at clubs/game stores who follow a different arrangement, and someone else is the host and the DM is the "entertainment" for the get together.  Still, in game, the concept makes sense, as the DM needs to juggle the personalities of the players to make sure everyone is having "fun" (or otherwise deriving benefit from play). 

Feeding into this concept of the DM as entertainer is the idea that the DM is not trying to kill the player characters, but rather, allowing them to play.  There is some discussion of when to allow the dice to kill PCs and when to fudge things.  An interesting idea on keeping players engaged is to have them recap previous sessions at the start of the next session.

The book effectively summarizes the bloat issues of 3.5 edition by discussing the addition of a class to your game.  When adding a class, you are not just adding a single option, but rather dozens due to class/race/feat permutations.  An example is given where adding a race is too "powerful", by suggesting a Medusa sorcerer.  (actually, I want someone to make a Flailsnail character of that one)

The book includes some random dungeon material, which could be useful to add to other tables you have for that purpose.  Also has random encounter tables, and random treasure, as well as a number of "ready to go" encounters and traps with stats and details for 3.5.

The book has a chapter discussing high level play issues, which are different than in earlier editions of D&D, given the power increase of the characters with feats and various powers.

An interesting section of the book discusses how to have a memorable villain, which I think all longer term games could benefit from, even if they are sandboxes.

I do not want to put everyone off this book, but rather suggest that it was not for me.  If you were completely new to DMing, and did not spend a year reading blogs on the Internet before doing it, you could read this book and get some useful advice.  For me though, it was mostly repetitious of things I have already read or learned on my own, and a bit too specific to the challenges or running a 3.5 game.

In other news, still have not had the time/motivation to paint, so that is nearly four months without touching a brush.  Not a great state to be in, particularly when I had three largish projects I wanted to accomplish this year (baneblade, D&D figures, and Dreadfleet).

Monster Manual, 4th Edition

No, not Type IV 4th edition, 4th edition of the original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual, published when I was but a year old.  Thanks to the miracles of intra-library loans, I have been looking through it this week. I was pretty excited to get it, since I have never read any of the original AD&D material, instead having first come into the hobby with 2nd Edition, and mostly with modern retro-clones like Labyrinth Lord.

The presentation in this book is fairly standard, in that it has a stat block, description of the creature and its abilities, any special notes about occurrence etc, and occasionally a picture.  Surprising to me at least, was that the stat block does not have any XP information.  Some groups of like monsters are grouped together, so that "devils", "dinos", and "demons" can have their general rules explained up front.  (although this is not true for "undead" or "pre-historic" for example).  Another interesting aspect is that monster damage is not mentioned in terms of dice types (d4-d20), but rather as damage ranges.  This is probably due to the lack of polyhedral dice at the time, but it does make for a bit of extra work to convert 2-8 to 2d4 say, and some of the damage ranges do not convert nicely in to dice types.

The art in the book is... variable.  The pieces by D.A. Trampier are generally good to excellent (in particular the Were-rats and Rakshasa), where as the majority of pieces by D.C. Sutherland III are... poor (dragons in particular).  They do generally convey the idea of the creature though, and fit the sort of pseudo-late medieval milieu that Gygax seems to have run his games in, and they have a sort of enthusiastic nature that makes some of them charming.

An interesting aspect is that the last couple pages of the book are a catalog of all TSR Fantasy and Science Fiction games available at the time, which reminds you that there were briefly at least, THREE versions of D&D in print at the same time. (AD&D, Basic, and Original).  There is also an advertisement for GenCon, then owned by TSR.

Compared to modern works, the 1979 book is hardly state of the art.  If someone published this now, you would consider it "amateur" and probably would not pay more than $5 for a PDF copy.  Desktop publishing has advanced significantly in the last 10 years, never mind in the last 30. Yet, it is pretty easy to see how this would have been revolutionary at the time it was first published, in particular as an advancement on small stapled booklets.  If you have not checked it out, you should, just to see how far things have come.

Yesterday I got the original AD&D DM's guide, also from intra-library loan, so I am pretty excited to read that next.

Reaper Miniatures

This weekend I got my Reaper Miniatures order in the mail.  I ordered the PC figures and a few monster/NPC types from Reaper, and was able to take advantage of both their free shipping, and their special October "Trick-Or-Treat" offer.  Here is what I got in my Trick-or-Treat bag:

We have a bag of candy, the Pink color paint for Breast Cancer awareness, four bottles of paint as samples, a pack of CAV branded playing cards, and my Trick-or-Treat figure.

The real Trick vs. Treat aspect of the bag was the chance to get a "treat", a figure, or a "trick".  I got the trick, which was a packaged rock.  Maybe it will be a future collectible? It is after all a one of a kind figure...

As I have mentioned before I really like Reaper figures, and I like how useful their website's figure finder feature is. (although it would be nice if there were more keywords for each figure). Unfortunately, at least in terms of this project, most Reaper figures are more in the 32mm range than in a 28mm range. Some are even pushing that, since the Dark Heaven range is fairly free form, and different sculptors have different ideas of how large a figure ought to be.

Pictured between "Franz" and "Jean" our comparison figures, we have Red Box Games, Perry Miniatures, Ebob, Reaper elf, and Reaper Gnome.  Sort of a motley crew, but I think basing and paint will draw them together a bit more.

Why only one player wants to be a male character I do not know, but it sure made figure finding more difficult.  More on that later, when I introduce the PC figures.

Now I am just waiting for bases from EM4, and we can start seeing some real progress here, and not just shots of bare metal.

Also, a warm welcome to new follower Bogus Gasman, who has a D&D blog titled "My pants are Haunted".

Perry Miniatures Review

This weekend I got my first order from Perry Miniatures.  While I certainly have more than a few figures sculpted by the Perry Brothers (more like 100s), I had never previously ordered from their own figure company.

I ordered a few figures to use as NPCs in the D&D game that I am running in January, drawing from their First Crusade line. Indeed these are figures that I am using as the benchmark for the project, because they fit the look I want so closely. In this case the figures are sculpted by Michael Perry, although most people would be hard pressed to identify between the work of one or the other of the brothers.

This first picture is our lovely comparison models "Franz" and "Jean", which you may recall are 6th and 5th edition GW figures.  As it happens they were also sculpted by the Perry Brothers (I may have missed a zero on my previous estimate of the number of figures I own that they have sculped.)  As you can see, the figure matches most closely with the 5th edition metal Bretonnian figure, which is to my mind, excellent.
 
One of the things you read about online occasionally, is that Perry figures are "terrible" in terms of flash and other clean up work.  As you can see from the figure below, there is some extraneous metal that needed to be cleaned up, but I think it was nothing out of the ordinary, and it only took a few minutes to work through the set that I got.

This last picture is of CU25, one of the only packs that does not have a picture on their site.  As you can see they are quite dynamic figures, and should look quite nice slaying orcs down in the dungeons.



Perry Miniatures CU25 Mailed Sword and Axemen, advancing/attacking



The figures are packed in little black boxes for each code, and this seems to be good enough for overseas shipment.  Shipping times were perfectly adequate, and the VAT rebate offset the price of postage. In conclusion, these are lovely figures that I am already planning on supplementing sometime in the future.

Red Box Games

This past week I got an order of miniatures from Red Box Games (RBG).  Sculpted by Tré Manor, the Red Box Games figures are much closer to "true" proportionality, which can mean that they look small compared to other figures, and in particular have small heads (or normal sized depending on your POV).  Personally, I find the figures to be lovely, but I can see why some people would say that they do not mix with other figure lines.

In my order was the figure "Nannulf of Arnholt's Hill", a barbarian type with three different arm combination options.  He can have a sword and shield, two handed axe, or javelins and a buckler. The finish of the figure was excellent, with essentially no flash or mold lines. The thinner metal of the sword and javelins was bent, but easily corrected with a bit of gentle pressure.

Here he is shown with my tester figures for this set of reviews "Franz" and "Jean", which are an Empire handgunner from the 6th Edition boxed set, and a 5th Edition Bretonnian Man-At-Arms with Spear Champion, both from Games Workshop.

The other figures that I got were equally well cast, and I would certainly buy from  RBG again.

Eureka Miniatures

As part of my D&D project, I needed to get some dogs to serve as retainers for the PC party.  (or as wild dogs to slay the PC party)  Looking around the various dog options from the myriad of sources on the Internet, I fixed on the Eureka Conquistador dog handler and dogs set as being the best bargain, and bought it from Eureka USA (for somewhat less than from Eureka AU).  Since they have flat rate shipping, I tossed in a few other useful figures for monsters and the like, which I will not talk about now. (I was also very tempted to get a squadron of Saxon horse for my 1809 project, but fortunately sanity prevailed)

My order came very quickly, and was packed quite well. I was really quite pleased with the service that I got from Eureka USA.

The dogs from the set are great, perfect for what I want to use them for, and while they have a little bit of flash between their legs, they are cast well, and should clean up nicely. 

Not necessary for this current project, but also interesting is the dog handler himself. I had always thought that Eureka figures would be too small for use with GW figures, but as you can see from the picture below, that is not the case at all. I am quite pleased with its size and heft as compared to the smaller Bretonnian figure on the left, and the larger Empire figure on the right.  Consequently, I think it should be possible to make a small Estalian or Dogs of War force using Eureka figures, and they would not look out of place with GW figures at all. Unfortunately, I have not opened my pack of Foundry El Dorado adventurers, so I was not able to compare with those, but I think they should match up fairly well.

With my Eureka purchase, I also threw in a Venturan trooper with SAW 15mm figure for comparison purposes.  Since these are relatively new, this may be of use to someone who is interested in getting these figures.

Left to right we have a Resistant Roosters US soldier in Greatcoat, the Venturan, a late war German  Grenadier from BattleFront (Flames of War GE722), and a German anti-tank gun crew man from Command Decision (Old Glory).  As you can see the picture they are all close enough for use on the same battlefield, although, possibly not in the same squad.  

The Venturan was well cast and quite proportional, although a bit thin legged considering he has body armor on. The integral base was quite thin, and would be easy to blend in. The SAW, as you may be able to tell from the picture, is pretty clearly a SF BAR, which I found amusing. At $0.67 a figure, they are quite reasonable, and a full platoon would not break the bank.

As a concluding cautionary note, the Eureka figures do contain lead, so be sure to handle them appropriately, if like I do, you have small children.

Soon, I hope to discuss the other figures I am getting from Perry miniatures, Red box games, and Ebob.

Delenda est Carthago

I finally finished reading Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles.  This book, from its title, would appear to be an overview of Carthage's development and civilization; however, the book spends far more space talking about Heracles/Hercules/Melquart and how they became increasingly conflated as time went on through cultural syncretism.  Even the actions of Hannibal are presented as attempts to use the myths of Heracles as propaganda, and less of military/logistical actions.

This book was far less gripping than Empires of the Sea, the last history book I read, being much drier, due in part I suspect to the comparative lack of information.  Where as Roger Crowley had personal diaries and letters to draw from, Mr. Miles had only second hand histories and archaeological data from which to build his story.  Regardless of that though, the style of these two books could not be more different, with Mr. Crowley putting the reader in the action, and Mr. Miles takes scholarly distance to a new height.  The book spends far more time discussing sources and methods than in explaining general history, or geographical relationships, which I think is less useful way to write in a general history of this type. It does have an extensive bibliography and end notes, which do help to explain some of the assertions made.  In conclusion, it is hard to recommend this book to those who want a mere overview of Carthage, as it serves more as an examination of syncretism in Greek/Punic culture, and its impact on the ancient world.

The Punic wars though, remained interesting even with the dry style, and now I am more interested than previously in gaming in that period (as well as reading a military history).  The early Republican Romans fought an extensive set of wars all over the Mediterranean, and Hannibal is their iconic enemy.  I think that Warmaster is clearly the way to go with, since it allows for large armies, although Hail Caeser! and Warhammer Ancients could both do a good job with the period.  10mm is far cheaper than 28mm though, particularly as there are no Early Republican or Carthaginian plastics currently in production. 

Excellently, a "Carthaginian" army is mostly made up of generic forces, either supplied by Barcan Spain, various allied Celtic tribes, or as mercenaries.  The only really unique forces would be citizens from the Punic cities, Numidian horse, and elephants.  The generic nature of the army allows for the component pieces to be used in other areas, and in other wars.  With a few additions, it could be a Celtic invasion, post Alexander Macedonian kingdom, or Greek Successor army, all fighting against a common Roman army.  Somthing to think about when I need a new project. (2030?)

The Passage

I finished reading The Passage yesterday.  A newer book by Justin Cronin, it is an account of what happens when a "vampire" virus is found and released by the US government in a near future setting (2016?).  The first part of the book is concerned with collecting subjects for the testing, and then as things inevitably fall apart, what happens to those who survive, and their decedents, leading up, as all modern books do, to the inevitable sequels.  Over all it was a fairly interesting book, and one that fans of the end of the world genre may enjoy.

I do not want to give away too much, but it does have some great ideas for Post Apocalyptic gaming, and some of those could be  adopted for more sci-fi type games too, just replacing the virals (as the vampires come to be known) with very strong aliens, or genetically modified soldiers.  The post fall fortifications in particular are very interesting, and could be easily extended to, say, zombie gaming.