Gallery – Page 38 – An Archive For The Steinberg Shed Space Blog

Age Of Sigmar. The Game That Is Ruling The Shed At This Time…

Age of Sigmar has taken the shed by storm. Not the Sigmarine storm that Games Workshop would like us to generate but a more sedate ‘Old Hammer’ style storm. Much more of a storm suitable for a gentlemans shed.

Out came the hundreds (and I do mean hundreds) of plastic skeletons that Coronasan had tucked away in a far corner of his Loft Full Of Lead… Mine was a collection of very old Empire forces with some more modern pieces thrown in for good measure. 1980-1990 seems to be the era of most of the figures on show. So many old molds appeared that we spent most of the evening (or at least I did) going “ooh I remember having/ seeing/ loving/ wanting that one…”

Once I had finished reminissing and geeking out, we started to pile the table high with models to start our game. Age of Sigmar has no points system so you just add and add until the table collapses or you run out of figures. The only drawback with this is it can lead to over loading the game and making it last slightly longer than we planned… I have recently found that capping a game at about 130 wounds appears right for an evenings play but leaves it still possible, and likely, to be an interestingly unbalanced game.

Our first games were a reminder that moving 20-30 men at a time can get very frustrating so out came the old movement trays where we had them, and where we didn’t, we improvised with home brew quick card sheets. Not ideal and the card shows up as terribly obvious in the photos. New trays are in the process of being made and acquired as I write.

Some things never change and undead armies are reliable that whenever they appear on a table, more are certain to pop up. So mid game Coronasan found himself raising more…

…and more skeletons (and ghoules and beasties) as the game went on.

I havent played with so many toys in years. Over 300 figures were dredged out (mostyly on the undead side as would be expected) and lots of block style manouvering ensued.

Most memorable moment of our fist game? 120 dice rolled by about 30 sleletons in their efforts to kill off 5 hunting dogs. After bucket loads of dice, and rolls to hit and wound, it came down to about 12 saving throws. I managed to fail exactly the number of armour saves I needed to to see them die to a man (or dog).

Who said tension could not be found in a simple game of toy soldiers?

Overall we are loving this game by Games Workshop. Amidst all the hype and hatred for this game, it does give us some easy fun, and an opportunity to use some much loved past armies. Armie that we have neglected for far too many years.

Dust Update – Command Units And The Feeling Its Gone On Too Long.

The Dust painting queue has again moved along. I am now 2 command units better off than last time I posted about Dust. The last 6 months of Dust painting is now the longest period of work on one project since… Well, since a long while ago.

So long in fact that I am actually starting to get very bored with this colour mix. Grey, Black, Grey, Green, Grey, Cream, Grey, Camo, Grey, Silver… I am sure you can see a theme in there?

That said, I did like the way these guys came out. Heavy Grenadier Command (Grey Black, Grey, Silver). Cigar chewing Officer.

Knife wielding Medic.

Rocket launching Mechanic. What more could you want..?

These 5 guys, in contrast, were a test for a simple way of quickening up the process. The ‘Old Man’ is the regular Grenadier command squad. I decided to simplify the painting process and use minimal colour options to get them done fast. Came out ok… 4 colours (Green, Flesh, Black and Silver) and a wash. What I would call gaming quality. I can paint better, but I just feel these are starting to become a bit of a task rather than a pleasure.

Some units will get more effort than these but the main bulk of the unpainted force may well get the fast colour treatment. That way I can move on to painting for pleasure again.

Bring On The Band

This was picked up at Salute earlier in the year. Sarissa Precision make this fine Band Stand. I made it up back in May. Its now July… Time it got some love.

I have a habit of painting things with as little planning as possible. Happy mistakes have let to many moments where I have smiled pleasantly to myself in the shed. Probably very disturbing to anyone looking in.

This came out in the colour scheme of my recent Bushido crew as that was the colour of the paint on the table… It works well, in an old fashioned English country village sort of way.

I wanted to weather it up a bit but my usual method of washing with stain left some heavy brush marks this time round. Large flat surfaces do not benefit very well from this method. pooling of the ink or brush marks are always left in the most obvious areas.

Overall I like it as a quirky piece to use in games where the Victorian town gets set up. Should be usable for most games in the shed over the next few months. Even my Bushido games may feature this soon.

I have some weathering powder that I have never worked out what to do with. Maybe I should play about with it next time I get a piece like this to do…

Age Of Sigmar… Ripples In The Water

By the time this post is published the new game by Games Workshop will be out. This was once thought to be the 9th Edition of their long term title: Warhammer Fantasy Battle. What it looks like it is going to be, is something very different indeed…

Age Of Sigmar is a simple ruleset – 4 pages instead of 400…

No more Army Books as every figure will come with a Warscroll…

No points system and it actually wants you to play with what ever number or combination of figures you want to.

Its also FREE to download from the web…

I had to look twice and then check it wasn’t April…

Even before its release these rules have caused much discussion and upset gamers who have invested a huge amount in to GW’s product. I stopped buying GW toys a while back as none of its current live portfolio appeal to me. Thousands think otherwise I know.

I still recognise GW’s influence in gaming and have loved past titles like Epic and Bloodbowl. Some of its miniatures have made their way into my armies but almost never in the way GW intended.

I don’t know where this release will end up. Success or failure it is a bold move for them.

And the strangest thing??? It actually looks like something I may want to play!

So much so I have gathered together the remains of my old Warhammer Empire Army. Ready for a test game in the next week or so.

So, I guess its time to rebase these guys yet again.

No, wait…

GW doesn’t even want us to worry about base sizes now…

A Little Bit Of Bolt Action

We recently got one of the long postponed games played. We had talked about getting a game of Bolt Action played for a few weeks as this rule system is as simple and smooth as they come. The ulterior motive behind this is the need to select a rules system for Coronasan’s Steam Punk Wars. He has painted a hoard of colonial/ Empire troopers and is about to start out on the epic task of completing all the assorted vehicles he has scattered about his Loft Full Of Lead. Bolt Action is a front runner in the list of rule systems to be used when we get that game up and running.

We went for a fairly large game and spent over the normal points to get all the options in that he would be fielding from his steam punk game. Troops, weapons teams and vehicles.

I had tanks, artillery, rockets, machine gun teams and anti-tank guns. As well as a selection of soft skin and light vehicles…

The battlefield was a village affair. A good mix of cover and open lines of sight.

It left two sizable armies bunched up, trying to gain cover, by the end of turn one… A benefit for my rocket troops, which were very lucky with close packed targets on the day.

The big guns found it harder, as they were not able to see their targets, or shoot at them, due to cover and friendlies in the way.

When the odd unit poked its nose out too far, it was often quickly dealt with.

Coronasan’s US troops were massed at the tree line for too long and could not run forward without getting shot to ribbons. His tanks were out classed by German guns on this day too.

The cover was hugged wherever it could be found and I recall 3-4 units camped out in this one bunker at times.

As the death toll on the US side began to tell, the Axis forces moved out and headed for the houses.

Happily feeling the benefit of the cover supplied by the remaining Axis big hitters.

This was very enjoyable, as all our Bolt Action games have been. So enjoyable, I think I forgot to take photos from the other side of the table. It’s likely that these rules will heavily influence the steam punk rules we use in the end. For that game, my wait may be a little longer though…

Dust Platoons

The Dust painting marathon continues, this time with my efforts focused on rounding out the platoon options for my Axis force.

First up are the Heavy Grenadiers. Lara and her Panzers, along with the Flak Boys completed this platoon a while back. Next up for these will be a second command option in the form of the Iron Fist Command Squad. They are in the painting queue already.

The last medium walker that I painted completed the Panzer Kampfgruppe. This platoon can be 3 walkers: A Ludwig and 2 other versions of the medium chassis.

Or: it can be the Ludwig, a medium chassis and a Sturmluther transporting a unit of Recon Grenadiers.

Now I have all of these finished I guess I can start thinking about rounding out the platoon options by using the Prinzluther variant of the transport and painting up a command squad (The Old Man). These should therefore be moved up the painting queue I guess.

The addition of a Death Rays support weapon, always good for tank hunting, finishes of my Blutkreuz Korps Platoon. This is the newest addition to Sigrid’s personal platoon.

It leaves me able to benefit from her platoons special rules which allows all her Blutkreuz units to ignore suppression. A key factor in Dust Tactics/ Battlefield.

With that lot done I can build 3 small platoons or focus on 1 or 2 main platoons backed up by a mix of specialist support units.

The photographed units here, and the other stuff so far painted, adds up to about half of the figures I have. What worries me is that I haven’t even thought about starting a regular Grenadier Platoon as yet…

Meet The Bushido Boys (And Girl)

These guys have been up on the painting table for the last few weeks. Ever since Salute if I am honest. When last seen, they only had their base coat (I prefer to undercoat in a cream colour for some reason that even I don’t understand fully).

They needed to be finished off so that Coronasan could get a game of Bushido booked with me. He has been asking me for a game for some time. I have been promising that I would sort him out for that game for months.

The base coats were done after the basing was completed. The basing for these guys was not well thought out, or planned in any formal way. I had an idea that I would try planking the bases, but without investing in anything to do it with. So as I had a few offcuts of MDF from my recent building projects I ploughed on regardless of the lack of planning.

The result looked fairly poor but, never one to wait and think things through, I carried on adding even more things to cover up each mistake. Finally some sand covered the last of the gaps and added some secondary texture. I had a plan to paint them as light coloured bases but when I washed the sand with a slightly darker shade they ended up looking like they would need to be edged in black as normal.

The overall effect is passable and I learned something about not giving in to spontaneity too 🙂

So, first up is Tsubaki one of the factions ‘Roses.’ These play the role of a geisha, who in the game itself, appear to be useful for distracting the lesser elements of the opposition stopping them from attacking.

Far less subtle is Manu who is a Sumo bodyguard. These guys are the muscle in the faction. He looks good for combat and also as protection for the leader with his bodyguard skill.

Senpu is a cheap fighter. He looks a solid combatant with only a few skills.

As all factions needs some brains, Harukichi is there to lead from the shadows. His abilities appear to benefit others so is unlikely to be played as a combatant unless his bodyguard is not paying attention.

Lastly we have Wasupu with his crossbow. He is the ranged combatant. Rapid fire and armour piercing skills help him out. I will have to see what his chances to hit are, as he seems quite cheap for his abilities.

So there they are… One starter set done. What next to buy? Maybe I should play them first and see what seems to be missing. I get the feeling I may find the 2 non combatants a bit of a challenge to get working at first. Only time (and a game) will tell!

Warehouse District

Our Dust Battlefield game is due to be played on an industrial table. Lots of cover and height changes. A great excuse to get out my various warehouses and workshops.

Along with a bunker or two to add a bit of WWII theme.

You can see I am making good use of my barbed wire rolls and the walkways I picked up from our trip to Salute.

The small workshop from Warbases and the pre printed units from the XLC Kickstarter.

And the new factory unit from Sarissa Precision. Now painted like the Warbases workshop using a sponge painted, layered application. Brick base in industrial grey and roof and windows in weathered black.

I’ve had some rust effect paint in the shed for some time and not often used it so it was a great chance to try it out on something.

Looks good on the window bars and the railings. Not so sure on the door. I think less is more with this stuff.

Overall a great little building that adds a little more to the collection in the shed. Likely to be well used. Just need to get those walkways done now…

Missing A Game Isn’t All That Bad.

After what seems like ages we decided to drag out a game that has not been played much in the last months. We dusted off Dust and set about planning a game one evening recently. I dug out my painted miniatures again and noticed I had not added anything new to the finished collection from the unpainted half of the collection since the last game.

That made it easier to plan my army but added no new edge to surprise my opponent with this time.

It all went to pot though when work and family caused us to postpone the game for a week. This left me with time in the shed and no game to play. Perfect for breaking out a paintbrush and prepping up some new troops…

First up was a sniper unit. A good easy start as its only 2 men… A little camouflage and flesh had these done in no time. The original Axis models come undercoated in grey when bought, so they don’t need a base coat as such, just the details picking out (as long as you want a fairly grey uniform look to the army).

Next was the new Wotan/ FlammLuther walker. Slightly heavier than the medium walkers and packing an incredibly hard punch with Twin heavy lasers or heavy flamethrowers.

Some silver on the bolt heads, black cables and a few armour plates picked out in a contrasting colour (in this case an olive drab)and she was done. An ancient set of Airfix decals (so old they were yellow and cracked when I unrolled them) provided some detailing and my secret weapon was ready.

The Axis has all the best toys so more Laser Grenadiers were prepped for duty. One more unit and I will have enough of these boys to use the platoon rules for these squads.

To complete my medium walker platoon, and to gain the associated special rules for the upcoming game, I decided to run up a 3rd medium walker. This time I didn’t get to leave it the base grey colour. A little by accident, I dipped my brush into the wrong pot of my pallet. The result was meant to be a heavy coating of Army Painter dark tone wash but I ended up with a thick coating of the olive drab colour all over the most riveted side of the body.

Always one to let fate lend a hand, I decided to continue with this colour and found I had to cover most of the model to even out the colour. It does make my new walker easily recognisable as the leader of my platoon this way though…

All ready for a new game of Dust Battlefield now:-)

Sailing With A Surprise Sale Price.

Osprey, as you most likely already know, have their own quickly expanding wargames range. I have a number of these very good rule sets. Some as yet remain unplayed but all appear very good, with those games we have played proving themselves to have simple, fast playing ideals. The newest set covers small fleet actions in the age of sail.

Fighting sale is on sale now on Amazon, less than 1 week after its release, for only £5. Add in post and packaging and its still about half the original retail price…

We have not played many boat games, but as we have been messing about with Dystopian Wars recently, and as I now have a seascape mat, it seemed impolite not to invest in this little game.

I do have a few boats ready to go too. These are the pocket models from WizKids Pirates game. These were sold in random packs about 8 years ago in our local game store and we tried to collect the first few sets… By set 4-5 we gave up collecting, but I have currently (even after selling loads of unpunched ships) about 200 of these tiny boats.

From what I can see from a quick look at the book, the Fighting Sail rules call for ships this exact size and in ratings from 1-6. Ship ratings it seems is the old way of classing a ships size and cannon count. 300 points in the game gets me about 4 ships of the line. A Flagship (1st rate) and its sister (1st rate), along with a 3rd and 4th rate ship as escorts.

Or if I want quantity instead of quality… I can get my 1st rate Flagship to lead its 3rd and 4th rate escorts whilst supported by a squadron of 3x 5th rate frigates.

This game will be out on a table very soon as a number of my friends also have pocket models and have ordered the book this week. For an incredibly low level of investment I now have a brand new game, but I will have to wait a few days to see how well it plays out.