Steampunk APC

Yet another of the Spartan Games bargains. This one is destined for the Prussians I think, a command vehicle, or maybe a transport for the close combat Prussians…

I like its stocky construction, it is actually quite tall and has a very square shaped body, it will tower over the Prussian Scrunts, but then again, most things do.

What’s On The Table

The Ramshackle Land Train if finally getting painted. After a few months sitting around in its undercoated state, I am getting stuck in.

I decided to start with the carriages and work forwards to the engine. To be fair, it is very easy to paint, black tracks and pick out some detail on the structure.

As the PugStugs had all of their rivets picked out in silver, I will have to do the same on this monster.

Bath Chair Of Sorts

Not sure if this really fits in with the style of my steampunk Imperial Regency army, but for GB£4 it seemed like a good buy.

I think it was the cup of tea that sold it to me (or is it gin and tonic?), that and the very large blunderbuss attached to the side.

Artillery Gubbins

I made a few more equipment bases using random bits, some of which are quite old, some of which are quite new. I also did a headswap on a Spartan Games officer with a view of including him in the Imperial Regency army. The uniform is slightly different, but he can be an officer.

Treadbike Workshop

With even more treadbikes, comes even more headswaps and the trimming of badges from arms.

When hunting around the internet, I found this great picture of a real treadbike bike made in Paris back in 1938.

New Meridian Infantry

Andrew May’s Kickstarter for more steampunk models has now added some more infantry models that I must have for my expanding force. They are now unlocked!

Age Of Sigmar – First Go

So as mentioned the other day, I had a game of Games Work$hops new Age Of Sigmar rules all planned against Mr Steinberg and his shed full of Empire.
With no army construction guidelines, it is simply a case of getting models out until you are worried that the table may collapse. Actually, as I was playing really old plastic undead models, that was never going to happen, so after I had set up four units of thirty models, I thought I would deploy some smaller units. Skeleton Cavalry, Dire Wolves and a few minor single models later and I was done. Mr. Steinberg set up quite a few Empire units and our respective model counts were not that far off in the end, but the Vampire Counts still outnumbered the Empire about 170 to 140.

We had sort of agreed to the number of units we would take as the main objective was to try out the rules and see how the mechanics work.

As an undead player back in the dim and distant past, I seem to remember that the skeletons were a bit slow, now everything pretty much moves at the same rate, with a D6″ to run. That meant that my large skeleton units could charge like any warm blooded human.

Combat is very straight forward, no more comparing weapon skills, it is just a fixed roll to hit for the unit. Damage is even easier, no more comparing strength against toughness, just a fixed roll to damage for the unit.

With the unit size bonus and some extra abilities from the Heroes, a unit of thirty spearmen can unleash 120 attacks. But still only inflict ten wounds if you roll dice like I do. Shocking…

Magic was very good for the Vampire Counts, especially as they can keep popping out new units of ten skeletons or Dire Wolves or Ghouls. Magic for the Empire seemed a bit underwhelming but I’m sure Mr. Steinberg will pass his own views on that.

The Empire Cannon had a few good goes and inflicted plenty of damage, I suspect I will be facing more cannon in the future. A unit with ranged weapons can shoot into combat with no penalty and no chance of hitting their own side.

The Vampire Counts got the upper hand, mostly because new units kept popping up and existing units kept recovering slain models.

First impression is that it was quick and brutal. How a truly competitive game will work is another matter. If one player chooses to take a much smaller force than his opponent, I’m not sure if the game will be as much fun. The whole premise of points based games is you have some sort of balance between two forces, this has done away with that.

But in the end it was fun and that is why I play. We had the chance to play a much bigger model count than we usually game with.

I won’t be rushing out and buying loads of models, I already have a pile that will fit in quite nicely, and I will definitely not be rebasing my models onto round bases. Luckily I have a box of Empire models I never completed, quite a collection of random chaos type models including plenty of demons and the like.

With such generic rules for most models, it really is a very simple set of rules, but it really could do with some examples. I’m sure a twenty page FAQ is just around the corner, to be followed another ten page FAQ for each army list…

If we stick with it, I could be tempted to use my Confrontation Orcs, but only in a small scale game.

New Meridian Kickstarter

There is an excellent new Kickstarter from Andrew May of Meridian Minitures. This new campaign features a range of steampunk militia models to complement the range of infantry models that were released last year (and featured heavily on this blog). As you might expect, I am in for this one as well and have gone for all the models currently announced.

The Kickstarter will run until the 3rd of August and I think Andrew will hit his strecth goals very quickly.

These are great value and you can be sure that Andrew will deliver these a damn sight faster than some of the other Kickstarters I have backed such as Aliens versus Predator, Relic Knights and Rivet Wars.

Age Of Sigmar

There has been a huge online response to the latest incarnation of Warhammer Fantasy Battle 9th Edition The Age Of Sigmar, partly, one would assume to the massive title, but mostly because Games Workshop have completely rewritten the way the game plays. Gone is the ancient model profile with Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill and in comes a very basic fixed roll to hit and a similar fixed roll to wound anything. Gone are points values. Just use as many models as you like.Having not played Warhammer Fantasy Battle since 2002, this new version caught my interest for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I have a couple of large armies in The Loft Full Of Lead that only come out for a game of No Quarter now and then. Secondly, these new rules are available free, so it is easy to download them and give it a go. What is there to lose?

So with the four page rules printed out and the Vampire Counts Warscroll loaded onto my tablet, tomorrow will see a game between the undead and some of Steinbergs Empire.

Steampunk Tanks

As the Prussians are getting some nice Ramshackle Pug tanks and a Land Train, the Regency needed some armour to counter the threat.These Ironclad Miniatures steam tanks are not quite as heavy duty, but there are some other surprises in the pipeline for the Regency.

The last of them is a light armoured car armed with a HMG and a reasonable amount of protection.