Focus isn't our strong suit in our little gaming group, so Dan & I figured why not start a Dakka plog to show what we're up to? There will be various themes here, but all will be the united by the love of little plastic soldiers and the hatred of spending money..
Over the last 18 months or so our modelling skills have come on apace, largely thanks to many of the posters here on Dakka. Hopefully we can post the odd thing you guys will enjoy, and the karmic balance will be complete!
So post battle report, I've been tidying up the marines, rebasing them with a mix of dust and flock, and the difference is just off the scale. Thoroughly recommend as an alternative to straight flock.
Right, who wants to see scratchbuilt Rhino, giant spider, fold away urban terrain board and some cool urban terrain scatter pieces? All made for the princely some of £0?
Finished upgrading a ruins piece of terrain originally made from a wine box and some paper mache... now reworked with filler, detailing, textures etc. Used cocktail sticks and guitar string off cuts for the cables and rebar rods.
Leftover 1/72 Vietnam War US infantry- cardboard for chest plate, green stuff for shinpads, pauldrons and beaky helmet. Not exactly Forge World quality, but good enough for a fun game!
Thanks man, I think the papercraft template was actually for 28mm but it's made for a monstrous centrepiece! He's packing dual anti-aircraft machine guns, a power fist with attached flame thrower and a lightning launcher so LOTS of short-range assault firepower... Let's see if he survives his first game...
After MANY gremlins during the build and painting process, cardboard 1/72 Leman Russ is done - here in situ with similarly proportioned Chimera, waiting to deal with the enemies of the Emperor!
So, inspired by a certain Dakka Dakka user by the handle of Skalk Bloodaxe, and buoyed by the success of the plasma reactors we built earlier in the year, we went a bit mad and built something HUGE and COMPLICATED...
This was a BIG job, and we made quite a few mistakes along the way, but it was an interesting process and hopefully some of you can learn from our mistakes!
"So, so far the casual observer of our Apocalypse: Earth battle reports might have thought that it was all just about the Atlantic Alliance vs the evil Holy Soviet Empire.. but that's a long way from the truth. As anyone (both of you) who has read our fluff will know, the fateful Soviet invasion of February 1954 crashed across the German border with devastating force, catching the League Of European Nations not quite with their pant down, but certainly at half mast!
With Germany winning a Pyrrhic victory in the Great War at the Battle Of Paris in November 1914, and the League of European Nations being set up in the wake up the military coup that toppled the Kaiser two months later, it was German patterned equipment, doctrine and armaments that formed the backbone of LoEN armed forces in the early years of the war.."
So as it turns out, Betrayal At Calth isn't just a starter set of 30k miniatures, it's actually a game. And as we've been discovering, really quite a good one:
I recommend this for anyone who wants to get a little extra "bang for buck" with their model collections, there are a good few eBay sellers who buy the game for the minis and sell the rest on for a pittance.
So as the League Of European Nations finally hit the table, I decided to scratchbuild a motorised laser cannon carriage from cardboard, batteries and general junk. Turned out looking pretty good (although so far it's not fared too well on the tabletop!)
Learned a few things over the past few months about leopard spotting and texture paste - finally got a chance to put them into practice. Hopefully can help out a few terrain builders! Credit to Mel The Terrain Tutor and Lukes' APS as always.
Thanks man - yeah, I love this scale, it's dirt cheap, you can convert and do damn near anything and if it goes wrong, so what? The figures are £7 for a box of 40! Building a WHFB Skaven army using 1/72 Caesar Ratmen - £36 has bought me 160 figures!
We're getting our inadvertant alcohol-influenced retro haul painted up and ready for a Christmas mini-campaign, so who's up for some serious RetroHammer?
So, having built a skirmish board and a Deadzone board, we flipped the chipboard shelves that formed the basis of our trusty board and decided to build an urban alter ego:
Thanks Cleatus, praise from the Scratchbuildin' Mekboy himself is praise indeed! Love your work bud ;-)
Automatically Appended Next Post: This week we've been revisiting an overlooked little gem from the early '90s - the excellent Firefight, from Alternative Armies!
Needed to make a load of these for our 2nd Edition 40k Revival project, so we came up with a way of mass producing quick, sturdy and actually pretty tidy looking walls. 20 from one A4 sheet of foamboard and some cat litter!
Kicking off 2019 with a dose of 2nd Ed retro gaming –
Brother Lorenzio tapped his comm-link again and muttered a curse. No matter what he did, he couldn't tune out the sibilant high frequency pulsating that he would almost swear sounded like some form of rhythmic high pitched bell… He put it out if his mind as the sonorous voice of Brother Sergeant Garcia came across the squad net.
"Stay close, brothers, the enemy is lightly armed but numerous. Brother Fiorian, your flamer to the fore."
The net chimed as Brother Enricio chimed in. "Forgive me, Brother Sergeant – enemy sighted, three contacts, each ten strong, bearings 294, 012 and 027"
The combat squad clustered behind a ruined wall. Garcia's voice across the net again – "Close and destroy, brothers. Grenades and flamer, bolter and sword. On me!"
With that, the five Space Marines roared their assent and charged toward their foe..
I started out with those orks back in the day - converted the plastics sooo many different ways. Enjoy! The real trick was finding interesting things to do with the Grots - I liked those little guys.
Back to Feb 14 1954 in our alternate "history" of Earth as the Holy Soviet hordes steamrolling their way across Europe get to grips with the Atlantic Alliance for the very first time in this scenario from Operation IRON HEART!
Lots of explosions, lots of scratchbuilt stuff, most of it on fire by the end of the first turn – enjoy!
The ladz are all painted up and ready (along with their papercraft DIY dread) to bring the pain to the Marines! It's 1-1 as we go into the third and final game of the campaign..
The final climactic game from the 2nd Ed campaign book, can the Greenskins drive the Deathwatch back or will the xenos fall under the might and fury of humanity's finest?
Adding some badass firepower to the League of European Nations faction before we try to wrest back control of Skalk Point from the evil Holy Soviet Empire - fun little build, check it out:
Skinflint Games wrote: Focus isn't our strong suit in our little gaming group, so Dan & I figured why not start a Dakka plog to show what we're up to? There will be various themes here, but all will be the united by the love of little plastic soldiers and the hatred of spending money..
Over the last 18 months or so our modelling skills have come on apace, largely thanks to many of the posters here on Dakka. Hopefully we can post the odd thing you guys will enjoy, and the karmic balance will be complete!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Right, it's ON!
For better or worse, Dan and I have signed up to the League of Extraordinary Riveters terrain competition... We've ogled other people's work for long enough, time to throw our hat into the ring.
Every year I get a Cadbury's Creme Egg for Easter, and once my blood sugar level has subsided enough to allow rational thought, I look at the packaging and think "What could this be.." - and inevitably chuck it in the recycling before it gets the chance to be anything
but NOT THIS YEAR!
This is going to be... a Vrilfire Reactor!
A what?
A Vrilfre reactor - a piece of terrain for our steampunk/ fantasy/ VSF version of Apocalypse: Earth, the as-yet-unpublished Hyperian Wars! This is for the Virum Nascii faction (who bear an uncanny, but purely coincidental resemblance to Skaven but in 20mm scale) - essentially Skaven Chernobyl. On the world of Hyperia, Vril powers all things magickal and makes civilisation possible - a VrilFire reactor can generate enough power to supply a whole province. But the Virum Nascii are renowned looters and thieves, their engineering feats based on corrupted magicks... so this should get interesting.... I haz IDEAS!
Like, totally not-Skaven, bro.... Miniknight (or Caesar, depending on which bit of the box you believe) Ratmen army WIP, for Age Of Sigmar, Age of Fantasy (from OnePageRules) and our own WIP Hyperian Wars system:
Battle report up! 1000pts, Orc Marauders vs Human Defence Force. Thoroughly enjoyable game, maybe a little over simplified but a great start ruleset for those getting in to the hobby. Remind me how many rulebooks/ codexes/ chapter approved you need to have to play 8th?
So the other day we were supposed to be building some terrain for the LoER competition, but then we caught sight of some yoghurt pots and this happened…
With all the Virum Nascii work we've been doing recently, it seemed only fitting to go back and upcycle an old model for the human Ancien Regime faction…
Thanks Cam, praise from a master is praise indeed :-) was fun to have a crack even if it didn't quite pan out the way I wanted it to, plenty of lessons learned for next time ;-)
Following on from our last game, Lord Ratticus' Virum Nascii forces are emboldened and more numerous, and this time it's the human Ancien Regime faction who are in their way...
So last week we tried our hand at an "open plan"version of the classic skirmish game from Alternative Armies, "Firefight".. and there was much rejoicing!
..or, can 40k ever be "good"? When a company depends on an ever expanding model range, with new rules to boot, is power creep and "unbalancing" an inevitable? How much "support" is not enough, and how much is too much?
Don't have any answers, but I'm intrigued to hear others views. Drop us a comment with your thoughts!
Skinflint, good thoughts. I think a lot of folks agree that 3rd - 4th/5th was a golden age for 40k where the rules were simplified from 2nd edition and the rules bloat hadn't gotten out of hand. Initially, I was excited about 8th edition and the rumors of a simplified core rules system. But this was vastly overshadowed by the immense complexity they have introduced in formations and strategems and command points and special rules for each units, as well as so many books with rules and points updates. It used to be that you could wrap your head around an edition, even as a casual player. But now it feels like unless you are fully embedded and saturated in the game, you cannot keep up with what are the latest rules. The pace of updates is too frequent for a book-based game and maybe they just need to move all digital rules so they can be constantly updated, if that is what they want.
Personally, I like a game that is a little slower-moving. I only get in a max of one game per month so it takes me and my brother about two years just to thoroughly learn a rules system so we don't like frequent changes. Also, to me, the fun of the game is not in using a command point at the right time to throw down some card to beat my opponent's unit. To me, it is about strategic deployment and maneuvering into better positions than my opponent. But I understand that the hardcore players who play all the time likely get bored unless there are constant updates and new things.
All of this is a big part of why my brother and I have shifted to playing Horus Heresy, where the system in a little more stable over longer time periods. And we just love classic things like vehicles facing, flamer templates, etc. But just re-reading the 3rd edition rulebook the other day, it made me a bit nostalgic for when things were so simple. The 7th edition/Horus Heresy rule set is unnecessarily complex with so many rules that add lots of things to remember (and result in multiple trips to the rule book in every game) that don't add much to the enjoyment of the game for me, such as Challenges between characters and Look Out, Sir! that seem to just make characters extra powerful at the expense of the rank and file.
Ideally, I would like the game to be simple and fast-paced where there is almost no need to refer to any books or cards during the game. Our eyes should stay on the table and the beautiful models! This should be a battle simulation, not a card game. The complexity should come from the difficult tactical decisions you need to make in the game that should vary with the situation and not be no-brainers.
To your point, all of that would drastically reduce the number of models and books they could sell so it is unlikely. But I am going to propose to my brother maybe getting out our old 3rd or 4th edition rules and codexes and play a few games to see if the older, simpler rules are as fun as we remember.
Cheers Riddle! Always interesting to hear another person's views about how much support is not enough, and how much is too much.. and how inevitable it is when you have a monthly magazine to sell packed full of new stuff..
Thanks Cam! Right, it's been a while since we posted anything - but here's why. Our biggest battle report yet! Melding Apocalypse: Earth with her sister systems, Hyperian Wars (fantasy/ VSF/ steampunk) and Future Force Warrior (sci fi):
Thanks Cam, was a blast! Few notes made on rules to tweak, and now we need to finish off the Totally Not Skaven with some weird weapons and war engines.. stay tuned!
For a while now we've been playing with the idea of "scaling" the Apocalypse: Earth setting for different games – just as back in the day GW had Epic, 40k and Necromunda for massed battles, intermediate and small scale skirmishes with different levels of detail, we've been toying with the idea of a 6mm mass battle version as well as an intimate, up-close-and-personal RPG (of sorts) set in the shadows of the Apocalypse: Earth universe…
With time on my hands and no gaming buddy to play with, I'm getting started on a new faction for Grimdark Future / Future Force Warrior / 40k (maybe) - the Rebel Guerillas. What are they rebelling against? Whatever you've got...
Infantry coming soon, but first, introducing the Creighton-pattern light assault vehicle, native to the world of Hazzard Prime!
Taking the Skinflint Way t near certifiable levels, I am now attempting to create an Epic Imperial Guard army for absolutely no money at all.. and do you know, I think I might be succeeding..
Building what I learned upcycling our collection of trees, I've started added some rock clusters for that White Dwarf 1993 vibe ;-) Hope you like them, it's a fun, cheap, easy and effective build
Skinflint Games wrote: Focus isn't our strong suit in our little gaming group, so Dan & I figured why not start a Dakka plog to show what we're up to? There will be various themes here, but all will be the united by the love of little plastic soldiers and the hatred of spending money..
Over the last 18 months or so our modelling skills have come on apace, largely thanks to many of the posters here on Dakka. Hopefully we can post the odd thing you guys will enjoy, and the karmic balance will be complete!
In advance of our hoped for sci fi gaming league, I've added a DIY Rhino to our little band of 1/72 Crimson Fist Marines (40K)/ Battle Brothers (Grimdark FUture)/ PSLA Spetsnaz (Future Force Warrior) - cardboard, foamboard , cocktail stick, IDE cable (thanks Zrunelord) and sprue bits, enjoy!
Seeing as 2020 sucks, Jim and I have been getting nostalgic (via Skype - bloody Leicester lockdown) and after scoring a terrific deal on eBay I found myself with a bit of a vanity project on my hands:
In what is becoming something of a tradition, we celebrated both the end of our local lockdwon and the release of 9th ed 40k by revisiting the classic Battle At The Farm with our DIY 1/72 minis:
OK, for some reason Wordpress has logged this as being posted back in June, but I assure you it's brand new! The rosters for our GrimDark Future 1000pt Fight Club, with occasional dalliances into 40k and our own Future Force Warrior system...
Skinflint Games wrote: Focus isn't our strong suit in our little gaming group, so Dan & I figured why not start a Dakka plog to show what we're up to? There will be various themes here, but all will be the united by the love of little plastic soldiers and the hatred of spending money..
Over the last 18 months or so our modelling skills have come on apace, largely thanks to many of the posters here on Dakka. Hopefully we can post the odd thing you guys will enjoy, and the karmic balance will be complete!
So productivity has dropped off a bit of late as I've found myself in a bit of a COVID inspired slump, but I've still managed to make a bit of progress even with lockdown stopping us from meeting up:
Khornate Chaos Cultist
Guardsman of the Hazzard 1977th
featuring the noble Atlantic Alliance defying the evil hordes of the Holy Soviet Empire.. at least sometimes..
" border="0" />
Too true...
