pancakes double 1

Helldorado Rule book.

2012-02-19T09:58:00.000-08:00

Having read the rule book twice i am still in a potition of WTF. Ok is it me am i that dim, nope its a very
strange syatem to get your head around. I'm in need of a demo for the bad boy to sink in. But with no one i know playiny the dam thing i'm srcewed. Well maybe i might get a demo at salute maybe not. Its a shame because the figs are fantastic some of the best out there. The book its self is thick and lush, the pics are fab and layout sound, i just dont get it.
I would love to say more but untill i've played agame i can't tell you if its any good. May be with no gamers around here playing it, its crap. But we shall have to wait and see.

crock of shit or shit hot i just dont know. by for now.

WW2 Rules of Engagement.

2012-02-19T09:45:00.000-08:00

A few years ago i wanted to start playing 28mm ww2 games. So of i went to partizan a gaming convention held at kelham hall newark Nottingham. I new this show was mostly Historical so thought my chances of a good solid ww2 rules system would be easy to find.
I would of been if there was one. I was told to get Rapid fire and 20mm modles, but i did'nt want 20mm.
I wanted 28mm, and tanks and vehicles. So i went home empty handed and unhappy.
On a trip to sheffield i popped into wargames emporium, a very small but fantastic games shaop.
In this shop of wonder i picked up.

And off i ran, well i paid for them first. The next week i went off to old glory Derby. A very nice show, and it was at this show i got my self some Artizan WW2 germans. And bolt action British infantry. This is allso where i got my hands on Rules of Engagement.

After reading all three books it became clear ROE was by far the better WW2 system for me that is. it may not be to alls liking but by george its fab for me. Hard back 236 pages of wargaming fun.
The book covers All troops and vehicles, Sequence of play, Terrain, Discipline order movement phase. shooting, Weaopons, close quarters combat, vehicle rules, fortifications, artilliery support,scenarios. And lots more.
What i like about the game is the effect shooting at a squad can have. It does'nt matter if you dont kill a single guy. The number of hits you take effect how the unit/sqaud acts on the battlefield.
1 suppressed
2 shaken
3 Demoralised
4 wiped out
You can move up or down from 1 to 4 depending on the situation your men are in. if you end up shaken you can test to drop down to suppressed if you pass you stay where you are but are now suppressed. if you had failed you would of become Demoralised. Or you can fall back to move down a number on the chart.
In the Orders phaes you declare what each squad will do
1 Hold
2 Sneak
3 Advance
4 Run
Then the squads do what is ordered of them.
Shooting is very simlpe and quick with modifiers for range weapons and cover.
The orders of battle give you all you need to pick your troops. The game gives you opportunity fire, for setting up an ambush. But your at -1 to hit. All small arms weapons are covered. pistols to panzerfausts. And larger stuff Pak-40 to sherman. I would like to go on but time and family are things that get in the way of gaming, i'll leave you with some pics of the book and some of my minis. I hope to play a game of this soon, and i might do a bat rep. I know the look at ROE was short but trust me if you like WW2 gaming you will love this rule set.

The book has a great Hobby section.

just a small selection of my WW2 minis.

Untill more ww2 c u soon happy gaming.

Buildings started 15mm Gruntz board

2012-02-19T08:26:00.000-08:00

I made a start on some buildings for the new board. they did'nt take long to do because its a ruined city and a bit of a cop out. They dont have to look very good. well thats what i say anyway. I used the white styrene because it was free, it does break very easy so if you want a better building and a stronger one buy the pink insulation foam board. Allso on the base i uesd sand of different grades.

I want the board to have different areas, an industrial zone, city area, and a wooded area.
I did manage to get some paint on some, there not finised just need to add some bits and bobs on to them.

The dome tops are from Hobby craft i think they were 59p for the small and £1.00 for the large.
The board is ready to start work on, its in 3 2 x 4 pieces. Should have the board done by the time Robin gets Gruntz 1.1 out i hope.

Argon 5 city of death.

2012-02-08T10:49:00.000-08:00

I have started work on my next Gruntz board. I picked up most of the materials i will need to get the city board done. Its going to be a ruined city board, but with some parts covered in tree's and grass. I had wanted to use the pink foam board, because it is alot stronger than the white bubbly stuff i use. But the white polystyrene i allways use is free, so this gives me cash for other good stuff like minis.
Today i managed to build 4 destroyed buildings, in total i'm looking at about 12 or more. The board will be in two 2 x 4 pieces. and all the buildings will be removeable, for storage. Argon 5 is a large city on a plannet ruled by the Karacken empire. The plannet is very wealthy in minerals of many kinds, and Argon 5 is the core hub of all trade and wealth. The plannet named Drang after its founder General Drang of the Karacken Empire. The inhabitants were destroyed by his forces long ago, and those that lived were drafted into the karacken defence force. But with such a wealthy plannet comes the price of war. Many Alien race's plot to take Drang for the wealth it has. The plannet is constantly at war with who ever next wants to plunder, the rich's it holds.
The Karacken Empire are constantly bolstering the city's defence's with Troops, mecha's and Tanks to keep it in karacken hands. For the city is the key to the whole plannet. Take the city and the world is yours. So i have a great back drop with which to build my city of death. I will post up pics has i progress cheers Pancake.

heavy gear for Gruntz.

2012-02-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

hi all got my self a cool dreampod 9, heavy gear mini. i won it on Ebay. I have painted it to go with
my Arc fleet. It looks ok and thats good for me.

Now to buy them new, its going to cost a small fortune because they are not cheap. so keep an eye out on ebay. I would like to run them in units of 3 with shields to keep them in the fight. They will of course be specialists. This guy is now my Arc fleet Hunter, Heavy plasma, hand cannon, and medium missile launcher cool. Not cheap points wise but very handy on the battle field.

No hope hold the bunker.

2012-01-21T07:36:00.000-08:00

I took some pics of a game today, we did some thing different. They sides were very unbalanced, the karackens having much less troops and vehicles than the arc fleet. the karackens had to hold onto and stop the arc fleet from blowing up the coms link bunker. The karackens have barbwire that they can place on the board, befor deployment. You need half your movment for troops to pass over them. Tanks can move over fine. Half tracks take a bog test. Walkers and mechs are fine unless barbwire is deployed in depth, then they too take a bog test.
set up and board.

The command bunker.

Arc fleet deployment redy for the task.

Two Karacken light mechs with a light APC.

In the deployment the left side of the battlefield was looking bad for the karackens. And has the game went on it was carnage for the light mechs and Apc. They should have gone up against the infantry but found them selfs in a fight with two medium walkers and a meadium grav tank.

Arc fleet medium Grav tank packs a punch. The two karacken light mechs can dish it out but when hit with this bad boy, its not going to be good.

on fire and in bits the two arc fleet walkers and medium grav tank had done what they set out to do capture the right flank. They did lose one walker but that was a small price to pay. The arc fleet squad on this flank had a missile launcher weapon attachment and it was causing hell for the Karackens.

arc fleet Medium grav Apc and light walkers move up the left flank with Gruntz squad and medic.
The walkers are very nasty with weapon mounts on each arm and missile pods.

Karacken Meadium Apc moves up to engage the arc fleet walkers and Gruntz, followed by the other Karacken Gruntz squad.

Karacken squad moves up to help out the Apc. only to see it blown sky high. The arc fleet Apc is knocked out in return. The light walkers move up to finish of the last of the Kara
ckens. The karacken Gruntz squad on this flank fires at the Arc fleet squad holding out in the rocky middle, but in return is allmost wiped out. The game was lots of fun even if one sided, better postioning from the Karackens may of given them a better chance. The Arc fleet movement and shooting was perfect all game.

super dungeon explore Review.

2012-01-14T09:20:00.000-08:00

I looked around for reviews, and well what a mixed bag it was from crap to fantastic. any way i went and picked it up and i'm happy i did its a cracking fun game. when you go and buy something look at it for what it is. A can of pop is a can of pop wet and Fizzy you dont expect any more or do you, well yes some poeple do. It is what it is simple monster bashing fun ok its going to get same old same old but thats besides the point its why i picked it up. its not all about smash and grab the loot, if you dont help your fellow dungeon crawlers out then you wont even kill the mini Boss!
The game comes with lots of cards, i'll be honest they are thin and not very good quality. They will need card protectors deffo. you get lots of tokens no problem with them. the tiles are nice well done and are thick card. The dice are nice 3 colours Green / Red / Blue, Green being your best dice Red your next then Blue. Hero and monster cards are again flimsy and cheep, but have all the stats needed on them. the rule book is very well done and all rules are easy to understand with pics and explanations of how things work. Monsters can get buffed up, along with hero's stats. an hero can gain better weapons and abilities by the loot metor or tresure. when monsters are hit potions and health can pop out of them. This happens by rolling the Green / Red / Blue, dice if a pic of a potion is on the dice when rolled you get a potion. Some characters can cary more than others. you only get a potion or health if you hit.

Now the minis and yes lots and lots of bits for a board gamer this is not your cuppa tea. But i'm sure you know a table top war gamer, and i'm sure they would help putting them together. for an every day gamer the mass of bits is not a problem. The problem is wanting to play with in 20 mins of opening the bloody box. sorry not going to happen it took me an hour and an half to glue all the stuff together by then any game was not going to happen. But stick with it they are very nice and you get lots, another problem is no assembly instructions. There are some now up on the soda pop site

cute i know....

One of the 2 mini boss monsters in the box, very big very nasty. The game based some what on the old Arcade game Gauntlet is what it is and it does that fine. Not to simple game play, but not to much you have charts and equipment flowing out your ears. There is plenty to keep you on your toes, sure played more than twice a week and your going to get fed up. But us gamers are fickle and we will soon move on anyway so whats the problem enjoy it while you can.

A pic of inside the rule book.

monster profile card. And yes the cards are a let down, when spending all that time to do a top baord game then you skimp on a key gaming aid well shame on them. poo in the fact fag paper is thicker nice art work and set out well just poor in quality.

Hero card.

The tiles well done thick and crisp. so all in all its not crap not fantastic just a good romp.
7/10 Nice.
https://store.sodapopminiatures.com/

New stuff

2012-01-14T08:24:00.000-08:00

Axis Gorillas very cool can't wait to get them on the table.
And much needed Tank Busters.

Gorilla very nice!

Tank Buster.
I've not played a game since befor christmas, its a great board game. any one having doubts about it well dont its Quick fast deadly fun. And with warfare on the way things are looking sweet for this game indeed.
the cards.

confrontation

2012-01-14T08:13:00.000-08:00

Its shame this game is no more sure very rare minis are being released but the game it self is very much dead. I missed the boat with this, i have had one game and it made all other games seem lame and dull. The minis are the best you will ever see. Sure there are some cracking sculpters out there turning out good solid works but for me confrontation models are the DOGS you know what. If you want to find out more about Confrontation visit http://www.conf-federation.org.uk/forum/index.php?action=unread Ever thing you need to know will be on the forum here.

Troll bloods

2012-01-14T08:05:00.000-08:00

just some pics of my Troll bloods never got to grips with Fury more used to Focus at least with Focus you know what your getting each turn.

Retribution / Troll bloods

2012-01-14T08:01:00.000-08:00

ok here are some of my Retribution i played lots of MK 1 but have only had one 20min game of MK 2 so may be its time to start playing again. My local club has lots of players so i've got not reason not to play. Hell i even like game so why am i not hitting the tables with this very good game. I'm buggered if i know, but then i keep looking for that perfect skirmish game. You know the one the next big game to come along. I keep buying into games to find that thae are not for me, so then its of to Ebay they go.

maybe with spring and summer on the way i'll start playing again who knows.

15mm steel warriors for Gruntz

2012-01-14T07:46:00.000-08:00

I was given this box of very old plastic minis by a good friend at my local gaming club. And i was thinking striaght away Gruntz!

now this is what the box looked like inside lots of bits to make 12 mech's and walkers,so i was more than pleased. i have built 2 walkers for my arc fleet. They are light walkers with different weapon load outs. 3 were built for my Karrackens all 3 are different with weapons allso. when painted up they look really good.

top pic Arc fleet light walkers above pic Karracken light mech's. I've done lots of profile cards for them from the army builder in the Gruntz rules by robin fitton. the game is not yet ready for fule book release but he's on line for end of this month. you can buy the pdf version, its a great 15mm sci-fi gaming system. check out the forum
http://gruntz15.proboards.com/index.cgi

No time for gaming.....

2012-01-07T09:44:00.000-08:00

i've been very busy the last month or two and in that time my gaming has been on hold. but i hope to have lots of new stuff up on the blog in the next few days. Super dungeon explore. Gruntz battle report. And much more. I've had a read through the Helldorado rule book, a book i had for christmas and well lets just say it was hard going. The minis are fantastic but the rules are very indepth and complex. so for now i'm off, cupa T and work to do cheers.
http://cipher-studios.com/ Helldorado site.

15mm

2011-11-27T01:49:00.000-08:00

I hope to have a new batrep and pics up this week, at the moment i'm looking at picking up an infinity Bot to see if it will fit into Gruntz. Hopefulluy it will, because they are fab models. And it would look cool on my 15mm battle field.

mantic forge farther .

2011-11-27T01:42:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago i popped along to the mantic open day. The place was small very small, but lots of warpath was on show from new models to demos. I had a quick demo with min is you get from the box set.
It was fast and brutal, my orx getting spanked by turn 5. Now the two boxed factions orx and dwarfs should i say, are very different. forge farthers slow and shooty, orx quicker and better in close combat. In 90% of the demos i watched if the orx did'nt move fast to get to grips with the farthers they died. A nd if they did get to the farthers the farthers died. simple. Well yes and no, how do you get close to the farthers with out taking to many hits on the way in. And how do you make sure the orx dont make it into your face. At the moment the rules you get in the box are only 16 pages so its early days. But from looking at the new corporation models this game is going to be very very good in the long term.

Dust Tactics

2011-11-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

So another board game and i must say its another board game i like i picked this up not for the board game. Oh no i wanted the minis for the up coming Dust warfare from andy chambers. 28mm table top warfare ste in the world of dust. Yes the board game can be one dimensional but its still a tactical shooty romp, now this is fast paced and fun. Games i've played have lasted from half hour to one hour.
Above two Germans one i painted and one you get straight out the box, they come with pre primer on Grey and Green. like gears of war all componants in the box are very well done. But the walking mechas are fab.

I was'nt expecting much from this has a board game but its very good plus i can use the minis for lots of other games. 7 out of 10 from me.

Gears or war The board game.

2011-11-18T10:14:00.000-08:00

so after a trip to old glory in Derby, i came away with Gears of war. funny because i was after 15mm bits and bobs. I was looking at Dread fleet, luck would have that a friend of mine allready had it. so i picked up Gears and waited on Dread fleet until i had took to the warhammer seas. Boy what a good choice that was, Dread fleet was poo. Any way onto Gears every thing you get from the box to cards to minis is top stuff, and very well done.
The map Tiles are very nice and are two sided, fantasy flight love tokens but this game is not to token heavy.

The cards are very good quality and have a laminated type coat on them.
Now i like the game i think we had 3 games in about two and a half hours. we lost to the locast in all 3 games but each game was totally differant and fun. we did come close to winning in one of the games. The AI cards work very well. I have played the game again and the COGS did get a win, the game is not fast action like the Games console it comes from but thats not a problem. you have to work together with your team mates or your in for a slapping.

you can see the plastic minis are very good, with lots of detail. The rule book is 32 pages front to back, the rules are easy to follow with good clear pics.

The dice attack and deffence dice. These dice are used in the game to resolve combat. The black dice determine how many wounds the attack deals, and can allso trigger abilities. The red dice represent how many wounds you can prevent. All in all this is a well balanced and fun game for me i'd give 8 out of 10 nice.

Bushido

2011-09-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

So i had a Quick look at this at my gaming club this week and i was very supprised by how much i like it.
The minis are crisp and look great, and the mechanics of the game are very interesting. I hope to pick a faction up soon. Well when i say faction maybe two :) .

Gruntz

2011-09-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

just a few pics of a game played the other week. Gruntz 15mm sci-fi game.

Dust tactics

2011-09-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

so i have taken the plunge into this board game, well its a very good game. The reason i got it was to be fair for the warfare rules thats on the way. Done by Andy chambers of 40k fame and other GW stuff. It plays quick and deadly. The dice are odd two sides with a hit cross on, and four blank sides for a miss. The models are good the mecha models are sweet. All in all a cracking game, with new stuff coming out all the time.

lots of great games

2011-08-19T10:10:00.000-07:00

so i'm a fool never sticking to one or two games for long. At the moment i'm painting 15mm sci-fi minis for Gruntz, great game. Just started confrontation, a game thats dead! and the minis are super hard to get hold of. Looking at Dust tactics, then i'm playing Malifaux Satday. Warmachine has lost its edge with me for now. I'm casting my eye over Edan / Bushido / Dark age. The guys at my local club have been playing War path from mantic looks lots of fun. Dystopian wars looking to by my first land force for Brittania. I have a game of dystopian wars land next week. Any way lots to do c u 4 now.

GZG UNSA

2011-08-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

unsa minis from GZG i'm building an army with them for Gruntz. They are called karracken storm troopers. Home world Karracus prime.

confrontation

2011-08-19T09:54:00.000-07:00

I'm building a Tir-na-bor army at the moment. which are confrontation dwarves i've painted 3 but they came out a bit poo,

other games

2011-08-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

my interest in other games, well at the moment its Confrontation a game long dead fantastic minis but destroyed by the very own the gave it birth Rackham. Should be having my first game of confrontation tuesday the 16th of aug. 15mm is still all go with the start of a new baord a ruined city board. Malifaux is on hold at the miniute. warmachine i plod on with painting the odd mini when i can. Looking at dwarf kings hold after a talk with my gaming guru Bob down the local fruit cake gaming club Hammer and Ales.
Jake thornton who designed the game is a member of the club and is knowlage of games is fantastic he's allso a nice guy. Any way when i've played a game with bob i'll report back. Tannhauser mmmmmm what can i say got it and its not for me £60.00 of money wasted on a game i was looking forward to playing many times. It got sold on Ebay after two games, thats how much i did'nt like it. Bushido looks cool as does Dark age and Edan. off now to watch Gen con vids catch you later.

old crow models

2011-08-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

i'm going to use these for my 3rd 15mm army. they are from the world Karracus. The foot soldiers are called Karrackonians from GZG they are UNSA minis.

grunts v1 And diffo game board.

2011-07-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

new vids soon

2011-07-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

hi hope to get some new vids up soon, my laptop is down at the mo with all my bits and bobs on so i'm on one of my sons laptops. He only lets me on it for short periods LOL. cheers nay.

draggamaa heavy tank critical mass.

2011-06-05T01:31:00.000-07:00

kaamados dominion ready to move in.

2011-06-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

set up on the left side of the table.

video of a game board, critical mass miniatures

2011-06-02T09:52:00.000-07:00

Ok this was the set up for a game i had the other night, mini's are Ground zero games and Critical mass. the rules used for the game are Gruntz 15mm
sci-fiI by Robin fitton who has done a fantastic job with help from the yahoo group. Its mainly skirmish level but i think can easily play well with bigger games in mind. Only got the Critical mass rule book yesterday so
need time to read it a couple of times. But so far its a good set of solid rules.

Triples sheffield

2011-05-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

went to triples last week, first time at the show and it was very enjoyable. picked up some gzg minis and a new KRcase. lots to see but not many participation games. lots of Historical games and traders. hope to have my new camera next week, i'll be posting a battle report then.

15mm Gruntz

2011-05-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

Made two sci-fi terrain pieces today for my board, its looking about ready for a game now. Just waiting for the rest of my minis from critical mass games. When they get here I'll get stuck into them and get a battle report up asap. I've read the Gruntz PDF rules, and i'm now looking forward to a game. Credit to Robin fitton and the work he's put into the game. Allso looked on the S6 Engineering site for the Gruntz range template and game markers. I was very pleased with what i found nice stuff. pics of the complete board soon.

all most done 15mm gaming board

2011-05-01T07:56:00.000-07:00

so just a few more bits and bobs to do then its finished looks ok to me. So now to order more minis and the rule book from critical mass. I'll be playing Gruntz 15mm sci-fi on the board to.

buildings for my 15mm sci-fi board. cheap!

2011-04-30T01:46:00.000-07:00

ok they may not look to good but for £7.00 i'm not moaning. And they will do the job just fine.
They took me about 2hrs start to finish so i'm very happy with them. To buy buildings would cost
a smll fortune.

2011-04-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

went to hobby craft today, and for well under £10 i made 3 buildings for my 15mm sci-fi board.
I now need a good model shop for bits and bobs i'll post a pic of the board 2moz. only went out to get away from the wedding. I'm sure it went fine with out me watching.

Vivipara

2011-04-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

today i got my http://www.criticalmassgames.com/ vivipara they are fantastic sculpts. And a must for any
sci-fi gamer.

15mm sci-fi baord.

2011-04-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

I've started my board but my camara's playing up so no pics. when i get it sorted i'll post a pic. i'm at a loss for buildings at the mo so thats next on the list. The buildings in the GRUNTZ vids are sweet, mine wont be that good. my first 15mm minis should be here tomoz so fingers crossed, looking forward to painting them cheers all.

kaamados vivipara

2011-04-25T09:12:00.000-07:00

I've just ordered some crittical mass 15mm sci-fi kaamados vivipara.
i'm looking at playing the 15mm Grunts rules. But first i want to see if i like the minis, and if i can paint them.

Gruntz at hammerhead.

2011-04-24T13:18:00.000-07:00

malifaux

2011-04-24T01:12:00.000-07:00

malifaux is the first game ever that i have entered into tournaments. Its a cool game with no dice rolled, all
is done by cards. They cards are called the fate deck, and you use the cards to attack cast spells, defend.
and basically win the game. the game is Victorian steam punk, meets wild west. made by wyrd games from the USA. In the first tourney i came 24th out of 54 in the second i came 29th out of 35 so I've got worse not better. The card based system works very well, but there is allot to remember in this game. You can do so much in the game. its an alternate action game so you don't get fed up waiting for your turn.

In the pic above is a large ice Golem very tough, and the small one's are ice Gamin when killed they explode.

Gruntz

2011-04-23T09:01:00.000-07:00

Over the last few days i've been watching vids on youtube about this 15mm game.
Now i should stay well away having SOTR-40K-DW-WARMACHINE-HORDES-ROE.
all of which are on the go. But i love the look of thi sci-fi game, the minis from crittical mass and
Groun zero games look great. allso the hammers slammers stuff looks cool too.
watch this vid from salute, the board is fantastic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag9N03zwB84

My DW table ready for battle.

2011-04-23T08:16:00.000-07:00

KOB V P.E

This was the set up for a game today kingdom of brittania v prussian empire.
all i need to do to finish the table is get some water effect on it. But at the moment it looks ok.

Dystopian wars

2011-04-23T04:30:00.000-07:00

At the moment i'm mad for dystopian wars.

This is a pic of the Kingdom of Brittania, Carrier, Battle ship, crusier,frigate. the game is Land sea and air
with the first four factions being Above, prussian empire,federated states of america,and Empire of the blazing sun..

This is the prussian sky fortress it's a fab model .